The four teens accused of stabbing a 14-year-old boy to death during a crazed brawl in a Bronx playground were recorded on a cell phone camera pistol-whipping, punching and kicking the unarmed youth before one of them plunged a blade into his chest and stomach, prosecutors said Thursday.
Details of the grisly killing come as law enforcement sources said the victim, Angel Mendoza, was collateral damage in the playground clash and not part of the original fight that sparked the bloodshed.
Angel was friends with one of the two initial brawlers inside Norwood’s Williamsbridge Oval Playground, a regular hangout spot for the young teen, but didn’t participate in the outset of the violence.
One source described Angel as an “innocent bystander.”
But when battle lines were drawn and pals of the initial brawlers began fighting, up to six teens jumped Angel before beating, pistol-whipping him and then stabbing him in the heart about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
“I want my son back!” the boy’s inconsolable mother cried Wednesday at the family home, hugging the pillow her son slept on.
Cops have arrested four of the six suspects and are searching for the remaining two.
All of the arrested teens are charged with murder, manslaughter, gang assault and weapons possession.
Andrew Ansah, 18, was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Wednesday night while Jordan Williams, also 18, was arraigned Thursday. Both were ordered held without bail.
The violence began when two teens got into an argument inside the playground, law enforcement sources said.
The teen who instigated the fight pulled a knife and tried to stab his rival, but his opponent managed to grab the blade and stab him with it, sources said.
Within a few moments, the teen wounded with his own knife reached out to friends to gang up on the person who stabbed him. Angel, sources said, was a friend of the stabber and was already in the park when the fight escalated.
It it not clear if Angel was trying to protect his friend when the six suspects attacked him, officials said.
Cell phone video shows one of the suspects “struck [Angel] in the face with a Taurus 9-mm. pistol,” then he and the others “repeatedly struck and kicked him about his head, face and body, as well as stabbed him one time in the chest and one time in the abdomen with a sharp object,” according to court documents.
Medics rushed Angel to Jacobi Medical Center Tuesday evening, where he died a little over an hour later. He lived three blocks away from the playground.
A 17-year-old boy stabbed twice in the stomach and once in the right shoulder walked to Montefiore Medical Center, where he was expected to recover. It’s believed that teen is the initial combatant who was wounded with his own knife.
The Taurus pistol and a knife blade with no handle attached were recovered by cops at the scene. One of the two younger teens, a 16-year-old boy, admitted to bringing the gun to the park and pistol-whipping Angel with it, prosecutors said.
That teen was also arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Thursday as his tearful family looked on. The Daily News is not using his name because he is underage.
“This case involves the murder of a 14-year-old boy in a public park in broad daylight,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick Kenny told Judge Laurence Busching. “He went to the park with a gun in hand.”
Bushcing ordered the boy held without bail.
“We love you,” the suspect’s mom told her son, bursting into tears, as he was led away, also in tears, after his court appearance. “Keep your head up.”
A 15-year-old boy was still awaiting arraignment Thursday.
On the night he died, Angel said he was going to a friend’s home after eating plantains and salami lovingly prepared by his mother.
His family did not know the ninth-grader was going to the playground but said he often went there to play basketball.
“He was really lovely, really calm and friendly, but he always wants to be behind his friends,” his heartbroken father, Miguel Mendoza, said in Spanish. “And whatever his friend does, he was gonna do.”
The father told Gothamist his son had recently become rebellious, refusing to go to school and going out whenever he wanted. The family reached out to the Bronx district attorney, Family Court and even cops in an attempt to get Angel back on the straight and narrow but were unable to connect him with the sort of programs they felt he needed.
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