Evette Jeffrey Obituary, Death; – The 14-year-old gunman accused of tragically killing an innocent teenage girl after he fired into a crowd outside a Bronx school was ordered held without bail Thursday as he lay in a hospital bed on suicide watch.
Wearing red pants and a black-and-red shirt, the teen sat quietly as Judge Gayle Roberts arraigned him via video hookup in Bronx Criminal Court on murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and weapons possession charges. He is accused of killing 16-year-old Evette Jeffrey outside the Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School campus near Home St. and Tinton Ave. Monday afternoon.
Assistant District Attorney Timothy Collins said the boy has a record, having previously been charged in Family Court with assault and menacing with a weapon.
At some point before the shooting, the teen suspect had threatened his own mother with a gun, Mayor Adams said on X Monday evening. “She was afraid of him,” Adams said in a video recorded inside his SUV and posted online. “This is what we’re up against.”
Evette’s mother and family friends sat in the gallery and wept during the court proceeding. Tears streaming down her face, Evette’s mother declined to talk to reporters as she stepped out of the courtroom afterward.
The suspect, whose name has not been released because he is a juvenile, was hospitalized on suicide watch Wednesday after he was arrested for killing Evette during a clash between two local street gangs, KOD — Kreep on Davidson — and FOE — Forest Over Everything, cops said.
The shooter fired three times into a crowd of about 20 people after a rival gang member sucker-punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground about 5 p.m. Monday.
Evette, an innocent bystander, was shot in the head and killed.
The Morris High School freshman had just spent the afternoon celebrating her one-year anniversary with her boyfriend, heartbroken family members said. She was riding a kick scooter just outside the school playground when she heard a commotion and drew closer to the crowd to see what was going on, police
Cops quickly identified the 14-year-old alleged gunman, who was grabbed just blocks from the scene on Tuesday morning by a fugitive task force composed of NYPD cops and U.S. marshals.
On Wednesday the youth started threatening to harm himself and was taken to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation. The teen violence was sparked by a fistfight involving the shooter. The teen shooter was involved in an “old-school fistfight” in the schoolyard and “was the winner of the fight,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Tuesday.
But as the boy and his friends exited a walkway near the schoolyard a rival not involved in the earlier dustup ran up and punched the shooter in the face. After the shooter fell to the ground from the punch, a 13-year-old friend passed him a gun, police said. The shooter opened fire with that weapon, aiming for the puncher but hitting Evette in the head, according to cops. Nobody else was hurt. Cops on Thursday were still looking for the 13-year-old boy who handed the shooter the gun, officials said.
