16-year-old girl killed, 2 students injured after being caught in crossfire outside Bronx high school
A 16-year-old girl innocently walking home became the latest victim of New York City’s spiraling gun crisis when she was slain Friday outside a South Bronx high school as she and two other teens were struck in the crossfire of a shooting by “brazen criminals.”
The 1:45 p.m. bloodshed, which came a week after an innocent 12-year-old was killed in a shooting in Brooklyn, left onlookers horrified and disgusted — and wondering when the carnage would end.
“We are burying our future and we don’t even know. That’s so sad,” said the super of a building near the South Bronx Educational Campus on East 156th Street, where Friday’s shooting played out.
The violence began when a man started “gesturing to somebody” across the street, pulled out a gun and started firing as the schoolkids walked nearby after class, said NYPD Chief Timothy Mccormack of The Bronx’s Detective Borough.
All three of the students were unintended targets, law enforcement sources said.
The girl, later identified as Angellyh Yambo — a “beautiful soul” and straight-A student — was shot in the torso and is a student at the University Prep Charter High School, which is about a block away from the scene, sources said.
The two other teens who were shot, a male and a female, are both 16-year-olds who attend Mott Haven Village Preparatory High School and University Heights Secondary School, which is housed within the educational campus, the Department of Education said.
They are expected to survive.
Hector, an UberEats delivery driver witnessed what led up to the shooting. “I saw another individual coming down the hill on 156th. That individual came down the hill and stood at the corner. He had the gun,” he told The Post.
“All they were doing was going back and forth saying, ‘Suck my d–k,’ ‘You f–king bitch,’ ‘F–k you,’ ‘You gonna get f–ked up,’ and all that nonsense.”
Hector got on his bike and left, but when he heard six gunshots, he made a U-turn and came back.
“By the time I came back, I saw the little girl literally on the door. She was already dead. It’s crazy. They were giving her CPR,” Hector recalled.
“They stopped because it was too late, she was dead.”
The building super said the mother of the slain girl, who was struck in the torso, arrived at the scene.
“The mother was screaming hysterically. The police was holding her back,” he told the Post. ” I felt her pain in her scream. There is nothing stronger than a mother’s scream.”
He then added, tearing up: “We are burying our future and we don’t even know. That’s so sad. ”
NYPD Commissioner Keechant, decried the killing.
“A young woman with a bright future … with two other teenagers were struck by bullets on the streets of the Bronx. Early in our investigation, it appears that the brazen criminals opened fire during a dispute. What I can say with confidence is NYPD detectives will work tirelessly to bring those responsible for this to justice,” she said said during a news briefing at the scene.
Mccormack said the suspect was standing on the southeast corner of E. 156 Street and Saint Ann’s Avenue when he started “gesturing to somebody” across the street.
“The gentleman on the east side of the street pulls out a firearm and discharges his firearm in the westbound direction,” the chief explained.
The suspect, believed to be in his 20s, jumped into a vehicle and fled.
Harrowing video taken from the scene shows police officers rapidly performing chest compressions on one of the victims, who was splayed out in the street with blood pooling around her.
Another video appears to show one of the teens lying on the sidewalk and clutching their leg.
The fatal shooting is just the latest in a string of incidents that have left children across the city dead or wounded this year from stray bullets.
Last Thursday, 12-year-old Kade Lewin was killed when a stray bullet struck him in the head while he was sitting in a parked car with two relatives in Brooklyn and on March 25, a 3-year-old girl was hit while leaving her daycare but miraculously survived.
Just days earlier, a 7-year-old girl was grazed by a stray bullet while standing with her mother at a Coney Island intersection and in January, a Bronx baby just days away from her first birthday was shot in the face while strapped to a car seat in her mother’s vehicle.
Children haven’t been the only victims.
On Monday evening around 7 p.m., 61-year-old Juana Esperanza Soriano De-Perdomo was walking on East 188th Street near Grand Concourse when she was fatally struck by a stray bullet, cops said.
On Jan. 2, Jennifer Ynoa, 36, and her 1-year-old pit bull Blue were killed inside of a Brooklyn bodega after Namel Colon allegedly opened fire on an intended target inside the store and missed.
On Wednesday, the NYPD released new data for March that showed major crime across most categories, including shootings and felony assaults, are up 36% and eclipsing pre-pandemic numbers.
Shooting incidents spiked 16.2% in March and as of Sunday, the NYPD has clocked 332 victims of gun violence – a 14.5% increase compared to the same period in 2021 and an average rate of nearly four shooting victims per day, data show.
Compared to pre-pandemic, 2019 levels, shootings in March were up by 69% while felony assaults jumped by 22.5%.
“I think the commissioner has been clear, she’s not going to tolerate the violence that’s going on in the Bronx or anywhere in the City of New York,” McCormack said.
“Our borough commanders in each borough are deploying their resources appropriately and will defend the safety of all individuals in New York City.”
Schools Chancellor David Banks called the incident a “despicable act of violence.”
“As a father of four children, I can only imagine the immense pain these families are going through today. These three children join dozens of other students who have been victims of gun violence in our city this year,” Banks said.
“I stand fully behind Mayor Adams as he works to rid our city of this violence, restore peace to our neighborhoods, and bring healing to these school communities.”
A press secretary for Mayor Adams said he’s been briefed on the situation.
“Sadly, there was a triple shooting of three youth in the Bronx. Details are still coming in, but @NYCMayor has been briefed with the available information. He had already left Yankee Stadium when he was informed of the shooting,” Fabien Levy wrote.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino, Tina Moore, Larry Celona and Cayla Bamberger
