12-Year-Old Boy Is Charged in Killing of 14-Year-Old Cousin in Brooklyn

A 12-year-old boy was arrested on Sunday night after the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn earlier that day, the police said.

The 12-year-old was charged with second-degree manslaughter, also known as reckless homicide, and with criminally negligent homicide and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, the police said.

The police have not released the name of either boy. They were cousins and were in the living room of a family member’s apartment when the gun went off, a law enforcement official said.

The 12-year-old boy had been visiting the teenager at his home, on the fifth floor of an apartment building at 80 Osborn Street, where the older boy lived with his father, a firefighter, and his grandmother, said Mudhil Jeter, 40, a longtime resident of the building.

“It’s shocking,” said Mr. Jeter, who is friends with the teenager’s father. “He was a very good kid.”

The police said they received a 911 call about the shooting around 10:24 a.m. on Sunday. When they arrived at the building, in the Howard Houses complex, they found a 14-year-old boy who had been shot in the chest. He was unconscious and unresponsive.