Fourteen-year-old Rycky Martin Stark Jr. was shot and killed on August 16, 2023, in an apartment on Charles Street in Fort Ann, New York. He had been about to start ninth grade at Fort Ann Central High School and was described as a basketball fan who liked riding his bike and scooter and spending time with his pug, Giannis.

A neighbor reported hearing a loud bang that Wednesday evening and found Rycky with a gunshot wound to his abdomen. Emergency responders were summoned but the wound proved fatal. Two other teenagers, a male and a female, were in the apartment at the time.

Court documents describe conflicting accounts of what led to the shooting: one witness said the boys argued over gun etiquette and Rycky tried to push the gun away, while another said the 17-year-old pointed a shotgun around the room and then at Rycky before it fired. The 17-year-old initially left the scene and later returned with his parents; he was charged as an adolescent and pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter as part of a plea deal.

If anyone knew Rycky or was in that Charles Street apartment that evening, please come forward with information.