Brandon Hendricks’ kin cried “tears of joy” over the arrest of a suspect in the Bronx high school hoops star’s killing, a family friend told The Post on Monday.
“We were very elated,” said Lorraine Outlaw, who was with Hendricks’ shattered mom, Eve.
“The tears of joy were crazy.”
Outlaw, who said she was like an aunt to the 17-year-old victim and was speaking for Eve because the mother is still so distraught, recalled that “the detectives called Mom first” with the news that suspect Najhim Luke, 22, had been nabbed early Monday.
Outlaw said the family was happy that Luke was caught — for his own safety.
“We didn’t want retaliation,” Outlaw said. “We don’t want more crime.
“We definitely wanted to make sure the detectives got him first,” she said, referring to Luke, whose photo had been put out by police hunting him in the case Friday.
She added of the suspect, “That is still someone’s child. And he’s hurting to do what he did. He’s broken.”
Luke was hauled off in cuffs from the 46th Precinct in The Bronx on Monday afternoon to head to court for arraignment on murder charges.
Hendricks was found shot in the neck just before midnight after bullets rang out at a barbecue in The Bronx on June 28 — a week after the star basketball player graduated from James Monroe High School with potential plans to be a court walk-on for St. John’s University.