The 14-year-old gunman accused of tragically killing an innocent 16-year-old 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 on murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and weapons possession charges for the Monday afternoon shooting outside Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School campus near Home St. and Tinton Ave.
Victim Evette Jeffrey’s mother and family friends sat in the gallery and wept openly during the proceeding. Tears streaming down her face, Evette’s mother declined to talk to reporters as she stepped out of the courtroom afterward.
The teen, who is not being named because of his age, 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 had sucker punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground around 5 p.m. Monday.
Evette, an innocent bystander, was shot in the head and killed.
Evette, a 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 sources said.
Her boyfriend tried to pull her behind a brick wall as the bullets started flying, but a stray gunshot hit her in the head, police said.
Evette’s grandmother on Wednesday said she hoped the teen shooter spends the rest of his life in jail.
“Give him the fullest extent of the law. He took her away,” she told the Daily News Wednesday. “You want to do big-boy things? Just throw the book at him.”
May 15, 2025: ‘Throw the book at him’
New York Daily News Front page of the New York Daily News for May 15, 2025: Grandmother of stray-shot victim, 16, wants suspect, 14, to face full force of law. Shooting victim Evette Jeffrey is pictured with her mother, Kristen Abad.
Cops quickly identified the 14-year-old 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 eventual 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.
