Friends and family of a Bridgeport teenager are remembering him Saturday after he was fatally shot.

 

Officials say 19-year-old Deonte Tomlinson fatally shot 17-year-old Khalil Sloan-Diaz on Friday in what police are calling a gang-initiated act of violence. Police say the killing was part of an ongoing street war between gangs in the rival Green Homes and Trumbull Gardens housing projects. 

 

Police say the shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. Friday when Diaz was sitting in a car at Madison Avenue and Grand Street. They say Tomlinson walked up and fired his gun. 

 

Sherriff Steve Nelson says he was a resource officer at Bassick High School when Diaz went there. "I know his mom," Nelson said. "I know him, he has a loving family."

 

Nelson said Diaz was recently acquitted in a shooting and was himself shot in a separate attack several years ago. 

 

City Councilman Jose Casco represents the district where the killing took place and says he knows he'll have to work harder to fight the scourge of violence. "It broke my heart about what happened yesterday," Casco said. 

 

The shooting is the city's second homicide of the year.