Two days after seeing his twin brother shot to death, 15-year-old Demacio Bailey stepped onto the basketball court Monday night to honor his memory.
"He said, 'Mama, Issy would want me to play ball,'" the boys' mother Delores Bailey told reporters during the Johnson College Prep game, referring to her slain son Demario by his nickname.
"He said, 'I'm going to live for my brother, Mama. I'm going to go to the pros,'" Bailey said in a hoarse voice.
Demario did not play basketball like his brother, but the two were inseparable and Demario would accompany Demacio to practices, the family said.
On Saturday afternoon, the two boys were walking to Demacio's basketball practice at their Englewood school when four other teens ambushed them underneath a viaduct on West 63rd Street to rob them.
There was a struggle and Demario yelled at the robbers, "Get off my brother," and pushed a robber away, police said. One of the robbers pulled a gun and shot Demario in the chest, police said.
On Monday evening, Demacio, wearing number 22, bowed his head and held his hands behind his back as both teams observed a moment of silence for his brother before the game.
Delores Bailey was in the crowd and watched as the lanky teenager led his team out of the gym at the end of the game, the players chanting "We will live, not die."
Bailey said her son died doing what he was brought up to do.
"My son did nothing but what I told him to do. I told him to stick with his brother," Bailey said. "I picked them up. I dropped them off. I picked them up. How did I know the devil was going to come at 12 o'clock?"
Bailey said she would dedicate herself to saving other children.
"I'm going to get a bus. I'm going to use every dime I got and I'm going to drop them off and pick them up and make sure they get back to their mommas myself," she told reporters.
"Some of these kids do want to live. Give them a chance," Bailey said. "We need to stick together. Mothers, get up and let's live for our kids."
Four teens - three 17-year-olds and one who just turned 16 - have been charged in Demario's slaying.
Carlos Johnson, 17, Deafro Brakes, 17, his brother Tarik Brakes, 16, and Isiah Penn, 17, are each charged as adults with first-degree murder, attempted robbery with a firearm and robbery. Johnson is being held without bail; hearings for the other three will be held Tuesday, the Bailey boys' 16th birthday.