NYC video game streamer with popular YouTube sports channel killed in drive-by in Harlem – New York Daily News

A video game streamer and sports fanatic with more than 33,000 YouTube subscribers died in a drive-by shooting in broad daylight in Harlem, his family and friends told the Daily News Thursday.

Jeremiah Cummings, 37, has built a following on YouTube over the past three years under the name “JermSportsTV,” posting professional sports clips and Madden ’24 videos.

“He loved sports and commentary. He was just getting his equipment going. He would record games in the area. He would pull out his phone, no camera, record them, edit them and post them,” his brother, who did not give his name, told the Daily News. “All the people in the neighborhood who play basketball would always tell him, ‘Hey, I have a game, come out and record it.'”

Cummings was killed just before 1:40 p.m. Tuesday at the corner of W. 118th St. and Frederick Douglass Blvd., a block from his home. His killing came less than 10 hours after police said a woman beat a man to death with a wooden table leg just a half-mile uptown, on Hancock Place near St. Nicholas Ave.

Surveillance video obtained by The News shows him talking to at least three men next to a black Dodge Charger parked on the corner. As they argue, a white Honda sedan slowly drives by and someone inside the car fires shots.

The men scatter, and Cummings, who has fallen to the ground, begins crawling around the Charger with a gunshot wound in his back. He gets up briefly, staggers to the sidewalk, and collapses.

Cummings’ brother and one of his friends disagreed about whether he was arguing with the men or, as his brother believes, just “hanging out” with them because they were friends.

Cummings had recently moved from a homeless shelter into an assisted living facility and had helped build sidewalk cafes for several local restaurants, such as The Fox Harlem, his brother said. He had also helped promote local political campaigns and worked in schools, his brother said.

“He is a craftsman and does everything. Everything that is needed from him. He has always worked. Always tried to work,” said the brother.

His YouTube following grew over the past two weeks after he posted about two WNBA players, one of whom was Angel Reese, who recently made the league’s All-Star Game roster.

“It just skyrocketed in a couple of weeks. Overnight, really. He posted two WNBA players. That got him views and overnight his subscribers skyrocketed,” his brother said. “It was crazy. It was just crazy. One day we looked and we were like, wow, out of nowhere. It was 300 subscribers, overnight it went to 10,000.”

“I couldn’t believe it. Then he said, ‘I have to take this seriously,'” his brother continued.

He said he spoke to his brother about two hours before the shooting and everything seemed fine. Then he got a call from a friend – Cummings had been shot.

“I really cried. It hurt me,” he said.

Cummings’ longtime friend and neighbor, 49-year-old Carmen Chauvin, described him as a “real sweetheart” and a friendly, protective big shot.

“I can’t believe he’s gone. I still can’t get over it,” she said. “Me and my girlfriend were there and we heard the gunshot. So we ran over… to make sure it wasn’t any of our friends and family,” she said. But a neighbor shared the horrific news. “I just said, ‘No, you don’t mean Jeremiah,’ and I just freaked out. I screamed because he was such a sweetheart.”

She said Cummings did not use drugs or participate in gangs, and he often chased users out of his building.

“He was raised by his mother and father in Queens. They were very strict with him. He got a very good education, he graduated from high school and a little bit of college,” she said. “He was clean, he never had a problem with anybody. He kept to himself. He and his little brother were either upstairs in his apartment playing video games or on the basketball courts playing basketball.”

The police have not arrested anyone in connection with his killing.

With Rocco Parascandola