Fifteen-year-old Unique Smith was fatally shot on the afternoon of September 7, 2022, in McLaughlin Park in Brooklyn. A student at the nearby Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School, he was sitting on a park bench with two female friends when two young men approached. An argument turned into a fistfight and, according to accounts, one of the men — wearing a mask — produced a gun and shot Smith once in the abdomen. He was taken to New York Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he later died.

Smith’s family described him as a terrific young man and held a candlelit vigil in front of their Bed-Stuy home. The family publicly pleaded for the people responsible to turn themselves in. An investigation led to the arrest of Wesley Walker in Binghamton on February 1, 2023; prosecutors later said Walker was linked to a street gang and that he mistakenly believed Smith belonged to a rival group. Walker was convicted at trial of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon and received an 18-years-to-life sentence. The Brooklyn District Attorney described Smith as an innocent boy who was senselessly murdered.

If anyone knew Unique, saw him that afternoon in McLaughlin Park, or has information about the events leading to the shooting, please come forward.