Port Washington Kids React to Foster-Bey's Arrest

Friends of Elijah Foster-Bey say he is kind, funny, outgoing and smart. They say he can run a six-minute mile and liked to play a regular basketball game on Thursdays, though he's not on any sports teams. And like a lot of other teens, he's a fan of Biggie and Tupac.

He is also known around Port Washington for looking older than his years. And for getting into trouble around town. He kept a side of his life private. Now Foster-Bey, who back in 2008 took a yearbook picture with the class of 2011, faces an attempted murder charge and criminal possession of a firearm in the shooting of a New York police officer in the East New York section of Brooklyn on Sunday.

"I'm very surprised," said a teen who identified himself as Jean Claude, and said he saw Foster-Bey on Saturday. "I never thought he would go that far. I never knew he could get his hands on weapons or anything."

Officers in an unmarked car stopped to question Foster-Bey, who was riding his bicycle on a Brooklyn sidewalk on Sunday at around 8 p.m. The police were looking for suspects in a string of robberies by a thief on a bicycle. Seeing the police, Foster-Bey ran into a building on Bradford Street and up to the third floor. Unable to open the door at the top landing, Foster-Bey, carrying an illegal handgun, turned and began firing at the three approaching officers, striking Officer Richard Ramirez, according to New York Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly.

On Sunday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that Ramirez, 29, of Islip, is at Kings County Medical Center and expected to "make a full recovery." An NYPD spokeswoman on Tuesday morning said that Ramirez's status had not changed.

In the gun battle with police, Foster-Bey was also injured and taken to Brookdale Hospital. He is in stable condition in a surgical intensive care unit, a hospital spokeswoman said at 3:25 p.m. on Tuesday.  

News of the incident spread through Schreiber High School on Monday, and students – many of whom had not seen Foster-Bey since last year – are still talking about it.

"He was just a regular kid," said one girl at Bagel Boss, who declined to give her name. "He was nice. He wasn't depressed or anything. He talked, he made jokes and stuff."

"He participated in class," said another girl, who had taken a robotics class with Foster-Bey, who also did not give her name. 

Those who knew him say he moved to Port Washington when he transferred to Carrie Palmer Weber Middle School. They say he was much taller than the other kids, and that "he was like the class joke because he looked like he was 25 but he was really 14." Some hadn't seen him since last year. 

He'd been suspended, his friends said, though they also said they weren't sure why. But he'd been to an outreach program and "was doing a lot better." School officials and the Port Washington Police Department had no comment.

His friends say he frequently visited an uncle and cousin in the boroughs.

"He never really talked about it," Jean Claude said. "He came here in seventh grade. But he still had all his friends over there. He would always go see his cousins that lived in Queens. I'm not sure where his father is, but he would always go visit his uncle also."

"He was always friends with different types of kids, kids who play sports and the wealthy kids," said Jean Claude. "I also went to his house a few times and he was really good with his little brother and he would always take care of him. He's about one or two now. He lived with his mom."

Another friend, a senior at Schreiber who did not give his name, said, "I heard the news yesterday and I never thought he would do something like that. He never freaked out because something happened. I think there's more behind it than the story we're getting. It's weird."

He added: "Nobody ever hated him. He's a nice kid. He was always mad chill. I never saw him get crazy mad or start yelling at anyone."