The mother of a teen suspect shot and critically wounded by police in a struggle that injured an NYPD sergeant said she doesn’t fault the cops for “doing their job,” but is anguished by the challenges she’s faced in getting her son—who has long struggled with mental illness and anger issues — the help he desperately needs.
Police reporting to a report of an armed robbery in the Bronx late Thursday opened fire as 18-year-old Antonio Morales, armed and struggling to break free, knocked a sergeant to the ground leaving him with a head injury, police said.
“I am not mad at the police for doing their job. That is their job. That’s what they’re supposed to do. I’m not gonna condone or say [my son] didn’t do anything wrong. He did something wrong,” said the mother, who didn’t want her name used.
“I just wish that it didn’t have to end this way. This didn’t have to happen.”
The mother said she wishes there’d been more options in dealing with a mental illness that left him quick to anger, echoing a common refrain in New York City. The boy, she said, has dealt with anger problems and mental illness since childhood. Therapy and medication worked for a while, but she said he recently stopped them despite his mother’s protests.
“He felt that therapy wasn’t working for him so he just didn’t want to do it anymore,” she said. “He used to go to therapy almost every other week, sometimes every week depending on what he needed to do. He got medication every month.”
The mother said she tried her best to get Morales the help he needed but at a certain point her hands were tied.
“I can’t force him no more to take medication. I could only give it to him if he chooses to take it. I can’t force it down his throat. I’m half his size…” she said.
In 2023, she said she called police asking them to admit Morales, who was just 16 at the time, into the psych ward at Jacobi Hospital but he was released within a day.
“It’s not like I haven’t been vocal about him having mental health issues and anger issues since he was little,” she added.
She said she also reached out to the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, to see about getting Morales placed into a group home for young people suffering mental illness, but she couldn’t front the bill.
“This is what it is.,” she said.
Growing up, she recalled, Morales was an energetic kid who loved to dance, she said.
“He was very very hyper. His brain didn’t know how to wind down. How they explained it to me, his brain is like reversed. Instead of it winding down when he’s tired his just keeps going,” she said. “He was always a pretty independent kid growing up. He always did things for himself. Very close with his brother always. They weren’t street kids at all. Whatever they did they did with their family.”
It wasn’t until Morales went through a traumatic experience when he began high school that the mother noticed his mental health really begin to deteriorate. When Morales, who was 14 at the time, was “jumped” by a grown man near his school, she said no one intervened to help so his older brother jumped in and was seriously injured.
His brother recovered, but Morales never did, she said.
“It was a switch in him, more or less like, ‘People don’t care the way I thought they did,’” she explained. “So whenever he feels disrespected or anything he will speak back and he will be vocal. As far as trying to physically hurt people he was never that kid. He would be verbal with his mouth, but he wasn’t the kid to charge or try to hurt someone.”
Vincent Vallelong, the president of the Sergeants’ Benevolent Association, said Morales, “had a violent criminal history and posed a serious threat to society,” at a press conference early Friday morning.
Morales was arrested January 8 for attempted murder in an incident involving a 15-year-old. Morales, who was 17 at the time, was released after paying $35,000 bail, according to court papers. Morales has also been a victim of a shooting and has been listed as a witness in two other acts of violence, according to police sources with knowledge of the case.
His mother said despite his mental health struggles, Morales had recently completed an OSHA training course, and was interested in working in some kind of trade. He was a couple courses away from obtaining his GED.
“He was pretty much doing okay up until now. [He was trying] to be better. I don’t know how it got here,” she said.
Now she hopes he’ll survive the gunshot wounds that left him on a ventilator, in critical condition at Jacobi Hospital.
A bullet remains lodged in his lower back and in his right armpit. Doctors were still doing CAT scans on Friday to determine whether or not they would do surgery to remove the bullets, she said.
Criminal charges against Morales were still pending Saturday.
“I didn’t expect this out of him. I’m just trying to roll with the punches for right now. We’ll see how everything’s gonna unfold,” she said. “My worst nightmare is coming to light.”
