A teenager was busted Saturday afternoon in connection with a Bronx triple shooting that killed a 16-year-old boy, cops said.
The 17-year-old boy was charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and criminal weapon possession as he was linked to the fatal shooting of Christopher Redding on Wednesday, according to police. Redding was shot in the back outside the Bronx Alehouse on W. 238th St. near Putnam Ave. in Kingsbridge shortly after 5 p.m.
A 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were also struck in their right legs by the gunfire and were expected to survive.
The three wounded teens were rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where Redding died.
“We’re torn apart. I wish he was still here. I wish he was still alive,” Bryan Corley said of his teenage son Christopher Redding. “This all seems like a bad dream.”
The teen’s arraignment was pending in Bronx Criminal Court. His name is being withheld by cops because he is a minor.
Police said the bloodshed was gang motivated, despite Redding having no criminal record. Corley insisted his son was an innocent bystander who was on his way home from school.
“My boy was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Corley said. “It’s a real tragedy. Everybody’s world has been ripped apart.”
Redding was a freshman at Kennedy High School where he was a star player on the varsity football team.
“Christopher was an exceptional athlete,” Corley said. “He was a running back for Kennedy High School and a whole lot of other teams.”
Investigators initially suspected the shooting stemmed from an argument inside a McDonald’s on Broadway near the scene, where a worker described a dispute over spilt ice cream that led an adult woman and three men to attack a teenage girl inside the fast-food place earlier Wednesday.
Detectives were still looking for three other individuals in connection to the shooting, two men and one woman. They released surveillance photos on Thursday of the suspects.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
