grant housing project
Tayshana Murphy, a promising, young girls basketball star, was shot dead Sunday morning in New York in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. NYC.gov

A gunman snuffed out the life of high school basketball star Tayshana Murphy, 18, around 4 a.m. on Sunday, inside the hallway of Manhattan housing project.

Murphy was shot to death as she tried to outrun a gunman on the fourth floor of the building she lived in.

No arrests have been made in this incident as of Sunday afternoon.

Family members told the New York Daily News they believe the brutal killing at Harlem's Grant Houses was a case of mistaken identity. Grant Houses, a public housing project in the Morningside Heights area of Manhattan.

She was pleading for her life, her friend Teka Taylor, 22, told the Daily News. Taylor was reportedly with Murphy when the incidnet happened. She was saying 'No, please, I don't have nothing to do with it.'

Hours leading up to her death Murphy was in a building courtyard surrounded by friend and others, The New York Times reported, unknowing that there was a plan to take her life. Friends told The New York Times that Murphy was dancing less than an hour before the brutal shooting.

Friend recorded the last hours of Murphy's life on their cellular phone prior to her killing.

The New York Times reported that some of her friends shared the recordings of Murphy dancing,and said the memories would never be erased from their devices.

Murphy, known on the courts by her nickname Chicken. She recently started her senior year at Murry Bergtraum High School for Business Careers on a basketball scholarship.

Several colleges were reportedly actively recruiting her.

A law enforcement official told The New York Times that the shooting seems as if it was in retaliation for an assault that took place earlier the day Murphy was murdered.

Officials are uncertain at this time if the basketball star had any role in that earlier assault.

The New York Times New York The New York Times The New York Times