As Fareed Adeyi sat in his car outside a 24-hour laundromat down the block from his Bronx home last month, he had no way of knowing the recent purchase of the vehicle from one of his closest friends would lead to his own mistaken identity murder.
But moments later, Adeyi, 26, died in a hail of bullets behind the wheel of his Volkswagen Passat outside LaundryBee on White Plains Road near Rosewood St. in Williamsbridge.
Adeyi worked as an Amazon delivery driver and had big plans.
“He wanted to go into the Marines,” said Adeyi’s father, 64-year-old Kareem Adeyi. “In the Army, you’ll be able to study whatever you want, go to school, learn a trade. You know, become somebody.”
Those dreams ended when Fareed was killed by a a 16-year-old gunman aided by two accomplices, a father-and-son duo who didn’t know the car had been sold and assumed its previous owner, their intended target, was behind the wheel, according to law enforcement sources.
When the teen gunman allegedly opened fire about 6:40 p.m. on Oct. 7, he meant to kill 26-year-old Carlton McKenzie, who had sold an unwitting Fareed the car just three weeks prior, according to law enforcement sources and the victim’s father.
Fareed’s father says his son was unaware McKenzie was out on $100,000 bond and battling an attempted murder charge for an August gun battle.
”If [McKenzie] had told my son about the trouble, my son would have never bought that car,” Kareem said. “Never, never, never.”
”I blame him,” Kareem said of McKenzie, who is not believed to have been present at the murder scene. “My son was his daughter’s godfather. My son was good to him.”
Devonte Moore, one of the three suspects charged in the mistaken identity murder of Adeyi, had good reason to be out for revenge against McKenzie.
Moore, 24, and McKenzie got into a shootout with each other across the street from the Gun Hill Road subway station on a commercial stretch of White Plains Road near E. 211th St. about 5:20 p.m. on Aug. 23, prosecutors say.
Both men were wounded, but Moore, shot twice in the chest, was critically hurt, while McKenzie was shot only in the left thigh.
Six weeks later, Moore, back on the street after recovering, allegedly went to the laundromat with his father and the teen looking to settle the score with McKenzie, law enforcement sources said.
“As soon as they saw the car, they jumped out not looking at who was in the driver [seat],” Fareed’s father said. “They just assumed it was Carlton.”
Fareed, shot multiple times in the chest, died at Jacobi Medical Center, leaving his family, which includes his mother and two older sisters, devastated.
“They cry for him every day,” the victim’s father said. “They miss him so much. They can’t get over it.”
“He was a very cool guy, very gentle and easygoing,” he added. “He loved everybody. He loved his mother. If I’m not home, he always took good care of the apartment, my car. He was a loving boy. … We can never, never, never forget.”
Prosecutors and cops say Moore’s father, 64-year-old Norman Moore, drove his son and the teen, who is not believed to be related to the Moores, to the laundromat and then circled the block as the shooting unfolded and served as the getaway driver.
The teen allegedly fired four shots.
The three suspects in Fareed’s slaying were arrested one by one over the coming weeks, and each was charged with murder.
Devonte was nabbed Oct. 22, two weeks after the laundromat shooting, and charged with with murder for Fareed’s slaying along with attempted murder for the August gun battle with McKenzie.
All three murder suspects are being held without bail. The teen’s name was not released by cops because he is underage.
Meanwhile, McKenzie is due back in Bronx Criminal Court on Dec. 8 for his next appearance in the attempted murder case stemming from the August gun battle.
Fareed’s father has seen McKenzie only once since Fareed’s death – at Fareed’s Oct. 11 funeral, where McKenzie sought to finalize the paperwork for the sale of the car to his slain friend.
McKenzie could not be reached for comment by the Daily News, and his lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
”Since my son has died [McKenzie] never stepped foot in this house,” Kareem said. “He never called. But at the funeral, he asked if I would sign the bill of sale. It’s so cruel. I said, ‘No, I don’t need your car.’ It’s unbelievable.”
With Thomas Tracy