Arrest made in killing of New Jersey prep star, victim of drive-by shooting

Armoni Sexton was a 15-year-old with a bright future as a basketball player. And Saturday night, he became another victim of the gun violence in Paterson, N.J.

"He was the next great one," Paterson Kennedy boys basketball coach Jim Ring told NJ.com.

Sexton, who averaged 16.3 points, eight rebounds and 3.2 blocks as a 6-foot-6 freshman at Paterson Charter School, reportedly was walking with three people at about 8:30 p.m. He was headed home to make a 9 p.m. curfew when gun shots rang out.

The other three were wounded and will survive. Sexton was pronounced dead before noon on Sunday, according to Capt. Herbierto Rodriguez.

"He would have made it to the NBA," Lawana Sexton, his mother, told the New York Daily News on Monday. "He would have made it, his potential was that high. He was on the road, on the right path to it. He had the right people around him who were guiding him in the right way. He was gonna do whatever he needed to do.

"He wanted to go to Kentucky, and then he was gonna go to the NBA and play against his favorite player, Kevin Durant."

The city lost their future NBA player," Paterson Charter teammate Jahki Clarke told NJ.com.

Police on Monday night announced they had arrested Gregory A. Oliver, charging him with murder, two counts of attempted murder and a weapons possession offense.  

The president of Paterson's Board of Education, Jonathan Hodges, said that as a doctor he has tended to many young victims of violence.

"I have stood in the ER and watched many of our children die," Hodges told NJ.com. "I have listened to mothers, grandmothers scream."