NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A 14-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday in the deadly stray-bullet shooting of a 16-year-old girl in the Bronx on Monday evening, police said.
At a press conference Tuesday, NYPD officials said the shooting was gang-related and that the 14-year-old is suspected of killing the girl, who they described as a bystander who had nothing to do with the gang dispute. Charges were pending against the suspect, who has a history with the NYPD but hasn't been identified due to his age.
The suspect was arrested at 10:45 a.m. by the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force and the U.S. Marshals. Police located him getting into a taxi in the area of 952 Rev. James A. Polite Ave. in the Longwood section.
"As the perpetrator tried to enter a taxi, he realized the presence of police and tried to flee the scene, but our officers moved in quickly and apprehended him without further incident," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny.
The victim, Evette Jeffrey, was riding a scooter at the time of the shooting around 5 p.m. Monday near Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School in Morrisania.
Detectives believe the 14-year-old boy fired three shots, with one striking Jeffrey in the head as she tried to seek cover. She was pronounced dead at NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln. She was a resident of the Bronx and attended nearby Morris High School
"When the shots were fired, our victim, who we believe to be an unintended target, was struck, and she immediately falls to the ground with a gunshot wound to the head, as the other children run away for their lives," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday.
Investigators had spoke with the family of the suspect Monday night, as they gathered evidence and witness accounts. The firearm used in the shooting hadn't been recovered as of Tuesday.
Police said the suspect is in KOD—Kreep on Davidson—a new gang to the area that has no members listed in the NYPD's gang database. Their rival is FOE—Forest Over Everything—which has 16 members in the gang database, police said.
The shooting is believed to have stemmed from an earlier fight in the schoolyard that involved the suspect and an unidentified male, police said. The suspect "was the winner" of that fight, but the altercation continued at a walkway near the school, where the suspect was punched by second male, who police believe was the intended target of the shooting, Kenny said.
Students and parents expressed shock Tuesday, saying their children were in the schoolyard playing at the time of the shooting.
"We are losing a generation of our young people, as victims and as shooters," Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. "It has got to stop, and we're going to do all that we can to make sure that it does."
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said Monday that the girl's mother is inconsolable.
“She got the worst phone call that no parent should ever get — ever — that her child was shot,” Gibson said.