Police arrested a suspect early Monday morning for allegedly shooting two 17 year olds in Allerton last week, killing one and sending another to the hospital.
The NYPD did not release the name of the suspect — also 17 — who they booked on murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a firearm charges.
According to police, officers responded to a 911 call on April 10 of two boys shot inside the Burke Avenue and White Plains Road subway station in north Allerton. There, cops found Kymani Woods with gunshot wounds to his head, arm and shoulder, and another teen with a gunshot wound to his hip. Both were transported to NYC Health and Hospitals/Jacobi, where Woods, 17, was later pronounced dead. The other 17-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was listed in stable condition.
A spokesperson from the NYPD told the Bronx Times that cops hadn’t identified a motive for the incident, and that there were no updates on the condition of the teen who survived the attack.
According to information from Being Garifuna — a blog chronicling the history, culture and news of Garifuna groups across the country — Woods was of Guatemalan Garifuna descent, and spent a lot of his upbringing playing sports.
In a video his mother Ruth Martinez posted to Facebook after his death, she and Woods are seen dancing together.
“Hijo, you left me heartbroken,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “I always told you it was you and me against the world … who I’m going to dance punta with(?)”
Last week’s incident marks at least the third reported shooting involving children in the Bronx already this year.
Josue Lopez-Ortega, 15, was shot in the back of the head outside the Police Athletic League (PAL) New South Bronx Center in Longwood on Jan. 19. And another boy, 16, whose identity was withheld, was struck in the leg and survived. Ortega died at Lincoln Hospital a day after the attack.
New York State Assemblymember Kenny Burgos said the shooting outside the PAL Center in January was “heartbreaking, tragic, and just infuriating quite honestly.”
Another shooting involving two teens, whose identities were also withheld, in the Bronx on Feb. 1 happened aboard a Bx5 bus — where a 14-year-old boy shot a 17-year-old boy. The victim survived the incident and the 14 year old was arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm and reckless endangerment.
According to the National Gun Violence Archive on Monday, there had already been 438 teens ages 12-17 in the U.S. killed by firearms this year. Another 1,076 had already been injured by gunfire.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
