A 20-year-old who was working two jobs in hopes of going to college and playing basketball was shot and killed on Memorial Day in Queens while sitting on his front step.

Dowayne Henry, 20, was at his family’s Springfield Gardens home with two other men around 1:30 a.m. when a gunman opened fire, cops said.

Henry, who worked as a preschool teacher and as a salesman at the Champs Sports at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, was hit in the stomach and head, cops said.

"Oh my God, it's sad,” said Leah Sivells, 19, who also works at the sporting goods store. “He was the hardest worker I knew and so strong. I just saw him yesterday."

A 25-year-old man was struck in the back and taken to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition. Police were hunting for the gunman, who was wearing a gray hoodie.

Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News Ken Henry, father of Dowayne Henry, collapses on the ground as NYPD investigators go through the scene of the deadly shooting Monday.

Family members said the 6-foot-2, 180-pound Henry doted on a toddler niece and had big dreams on the basketball court.

"Most important to him was basketball," said Andrew Douglas, 49, Henry's uncle. "That was his life. He loved it."

His uncle said he heard that the shooting might have been over some fancy Michael Jordan kicks Henry was wearing. Cops were unable to confirm the motive.

Neither Henry nor the other man who was shot had criminal records, cops said.

Previous Next

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Enlarge

Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News

"He was a funny, caring person," said Kimberlyn Leslie, 27, Henry's older sister. "He was saving up to have enough money to go back to school."

Family members said he attended Monroe College but was planning to transfer to York College to play ball there.

Leslie said her brother took pride in his collection of basketball shoes.

"He loved to rearrange them," the distraught sister said, breaking down on the steps of the family home. "He would put the ones he liked the most on top."

Handout Dowayne Henry (c.) had been working two jobs in hopes of going to college and playing basketball.

Henry was a shooting guard at Coconut Creek High School in Broward County, Fla., where his father lives, and graduated in 2011, his family said.

“My vision on the court is superb,” Henry wrote on a website called berecruited.com. “I also love to get all my players involved.”

Neighbor Tariq Miller, 20, said he heard one shot followed by a pause and nine more. He went outside and saw his friend sprawled out face down.

He said the wounded man, whose name wasn’t released, was yelling from the side of the house: "Help me! I'm shot! I'm dying!"

Miller said Henry was loved by those who knew him.

"He had the smarts, he was nice, he was doing everything he had to," Miller said.