Latest news with #JosephKenny
New York Post
16-05-2025
- New York Post
Boy, 14, accused of fatally shooting innocent scooter-riding teen girl in NYC schoolyard ordered held in jail
The 14-year-old boy accused of fatally shooting an innocent 16-year-old girl as she rode her scooter into a Bronx schoolyard brawl this week was ordered held behind bars during his hospital-bed arraignment Thursday. The teen, facing a second-degree murder charge in connection to the death of Morris High School freshman Evette Jeffrey, was dressed in red pants and a black T-shirt and sat on a hospital bed as he appeared on a screen in the courtroom. The violent youngster – whose name was not officially released because he is a juvenile offender – pleaded not guilty to the Monday evening deadly shooting through his Legal Aid attorney Francis White, who sat by his side. 5 Evette Jeffrey, 16, was fatally shot when a 14-year-old gunman wildly opened fire during a Bronx schoolyard brawl Monday, cops said. Rebecca Abad/Facebook 'The defendant fired numerous shots on school grounds in the direction of approximately 20 school-age children,' Assistant District Attorney Timothy Collins said. 'The defendant struck an innocent bystander, a 16-year-old girl, in the head. The incident is on video. The defendant has been identified as the shooter.' Despite his tender age, the alleged gunman had already racked up a previous assault charge on his rap sheet, Collins said. Judge Gayle P. Roberts agreed to order the teen held without bail to ensure that he returns to court, 'given the very serious nature of the incident allegations, and as well as his family court findings.' 5 The teen was ordered held without bail in connection to the deadly violence. Facebook He also faces charges of attempted murder, manslaughter and three weapon possession-related offenses, according to the complaint. He is set to reappear in court on Friday. The boy allegedly used a semi-automatic pistol during the early evening melee outside 800 Home Street in Morrisania, which houses three schools — Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science and Science Charter School, Bronx Latin and Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School. Investigators believe the daylight mayhem was sparked by a feud between street gangs – the Forest Over Everything crew and an upstart gang calling itself Kreep On Davidson, based at the Davidson Houses public housing complex, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said earlier this week. 5 The daylight brawl was sparked by a feud between street gangs, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny (pictured). Paul Martinka 'The victim, Evette Jeffrey, was not involved in this dispute,' the police official said. 'She was an innocent bystander who was simply trying to take cover behind the brick wall and was struck in the head by one of the rounds.' The gun-toting teen callously took off after the fatal shooting – but was busted the next morning as he tried to get into a taxi, Kenny said. Relatives said Evette was celebrating her one-year anniversary with her also-16-year-old boyfriend at a Chinese restaurant after school on Monday and decided to stop at the playground – where she found herself in the line of fire. 5 Evette's tearful grandmother (pictured) said she couldn't bring herself to forgive the shooter. Robert Miller 'She died here,' the girl's grandma previously told The Post. 'They were just going to revive her, but she died here.' 'She's forever 16,' the tearful grandmother said. 'That's it.' She couldn't bring herself to forgive the young shooter who took her granddaughter's life. 'I don't forgive you,' she sobbed. 'I hold your family responsible because they should be watching you. Whoever handed you [the gun] or had it, I will never forgive you.' 5 Investigators are still looking for a 12-year-old boy suspected of handing the gun to the shooter, sources said. Kyle Mazza/NurPhoto/Shutterstock 'They could say I'm sorry a million times, and I'll never forgive any of you.' Police are still looking for a 12-year-old boy who they believe handed a gun to the shooter, sources said.
New York Post
15-05-2025
- New York Post
Baby-faced ‘Little Devils' migrant gang runs amok in NYC thanks to lax state laws: ‘No consequences'
They keep getting busted, but it's the cops who are handcuffed. The pint-sized migrant punks who ganged up on an autistic teenager on Staten Island this month continue to run amok in the Big Apple — because the state's lax laws are putting up barriers for the NYPD. The cowardly baby-faced goons in 'Diablos de la 42,' an underage offshoot of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, have racked up dozens of felony busts over the past three years, but continue to roam the streets because they're too young to be locked up under the law. 7 A mob of marauding migrant punks calling themselves 'Devils of 42nd Street' have run amok in the Big Apple. Obtained by the NY Post 'We're not talking petty larceny, and he's not stealing a stick of gum,' NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told The Post this week. 'We're talking robberies, we're talking felonies, we're talking stabbings. And there's really no recourse. 'You know, there's no consequences,' the chief said. One teen terror has been so mischievous that he's been dubbed the poster boy for the gang, whose name translates to 'Devils of 42nd Street' for their reign of terror in Midtown Manhattan. The troublesome 15-year-old has more than a dozen busts on his rap sheet — and it took the May 5 attack on the disabled teen at the Staten Island Mall to finally get him locked up on Wednesday. 7 A 15-year-old member of the Tren de Aragua underage crew has been busted over a dozen times and was still free. Obtained by New York Post 7 One cocky crew of migrant punks even flashed gang signs on social media from inside an NYPD precinct. Obtained by NYPost Yet, he had been loose on the streets for months despite repeated busts for robbery and assault — the uncomfortable norm for dozens of other underage migrant marauders who know they're gonna walk, law enforcement sources said. One cocky Diablo bunch nabbed for ganging up on cops in Times Square this month was so brazen that they flashed gang signs from inside an NYPD stationhouse on pics posted to social media. And cops were investigating an armed robbery in Lower Manhattan shortly before 4 p.m. Thursday — with the 15- and 17-year-old suspects, believed to be part of the gang, snatching a sneaker at gunpoint from another teenager before running off. The crew, which law enforcement sources said now consists of about 40 minors, are largely migrants from Venezuela who were part of a wave of asylum seekers who began flooding the five boroughs in 2022, sources said. Cops have busted Diablos as young as 11 for a rash of assaults and robberies in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, the sources said — with the crimes typically involving groups of young migrants who gang up on vulnerable victims like the 16-year-old autistic boy at the mall. 7 A 15-year-old member of Diablos de la 42 has become the poster boy for the migrant punks. 'It makes me sick these kids are still here,' the victim's mother said Wednesday. 'They should have been deported a long time ago. I had to keep my son home for a week because he was so scared.' The Diablos identify with their 'older brothers' in TdA, a violent gang that established a criminal foothold in the city by recruiting new members from inside tax-funded migrant shelters. Crews from both gangs have specialized in violent robberies, including grab-and-run scooter and moped robberies and armed robberies of retailers in the city. According to police stats, TdA and Diablos together have accounted for more than 400 arrests since the start of 2022 through the end of April this year — including nearly 120 busts for robbery, 82 for grand larceny and more than 50 for petty larceny. 7 The 15-year-old Venezuelan gangbanger has flaunted the law on social media and on the streets. Obtained by the NY Post 7 It took more than a dozen arrests before the 15-year-old migrant was ordered locked up this week. Gregory P. Mango Most of the crimes involved some form of assault, the data shows. 'You know, this goes for their older brothers, TdA as well,' Kenny said. 'Don't think that it's just a juvenile problem.' Albany's Raise the Age initiative was part of the sweeping criminal justice reforms that critics contend has led to a spike in crime in the Empire State. The statute, which was implemented in two stages in 2017 and 2018, raised the age of criminal responsibility in the state to 18, and allowed for criminal defendants to remain in juvenile facilities as old as the age of 21. Before, suspects as young as 16 could be automatically tried in adult criminal court. On the heels of Raise the Age, state lawmakers also adopted measures that prohibited judges from setting bail on nearly all criminal cases, save for the most violent felonies. 7 There are now about 40 members of 'Diablos de la 42,' with at least 30 'associates,' law enforcement sources said. Obtained by the NY Post Despite several tweaks spearheaded by Gov. Kathy Hochul, most crimes remain ineligible for bail. For New York's Finest, that means many of the migrant gangbangers they pick up are released without bail because their crimes don't qualify for bail under the statutes. For underage migrants, the ride is even sweeter. The teens are typically released to their parents with a future family court date — where the most they can get is a reprimand and a slap on the wrist.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- New York Times
A Schoolyard Fight, a Burst of Gunfire and a Teen Charged With Murder
The fight that ended the life of Evette Jeffrey began like so many others. 'It was a fistfight,' said Joseph Kenny, the Police Department's chief of detectives. 'An old-school, schoolyard fistfight.' He was describing the back story to the stray gunshot that killed Evette, 16, near a Bronx school building on Monday — a shooting that recalled the fights between rival gangs in the 1980s and '90s that left teenagers in jail or dead. After school let out on Monday, a 14-year-old boy got into a fight outside the building in the Morrisania neighborhood, Chief Kenny said at a news conference on Tuesday. The fight followed another one earlier in the day. The boy walked away the apparent victor, the chief said. But then another boy ran up and punched him. Someone handed the 14-year-old a gun, and he fired three shots into a crowd, with the boy who had just punched him the likely target, Chief Kenny said. The shooter fled. The 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday as he tried to enter a taxi near where the shooting happened, the police said. He was charged with murder, the police said, as well as manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. The police have not released his name. Evette was not involved in the dispute. She had gone out to eat with her boyfriend, celebrating their anniversary. Later, they headed toward the schoolyard with her scooter to see her friends when the fighting broke out. When the shots were fired, she fell to the ground, shot in the head. It was 5:04 p.m.; she was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where she would be pronounced dead within the hour. 'She was an innocent bystander,' Chief Kenny said. The shooting occurred near a building that houses three schools: the Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School, Bronx Latin and the Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School. The fights there appear to be gang-related, the police said. One of the gangs uses the initials K.O.D. 'That's a new gang to the area,' Chief Kenny said. The other is the Forest Over Everything gang, which has a criminal history. Three years ago, two of its ranking members were arrested and charged with selling dozens of semiautomatic pistols, revolvers and assault weapons, some out of the Forest Houses in Morrisania, a public housing complex from which the gang took its name. Evette's mother, Kristen Abad, 30, spoke of her only child the day after her death. 'She was my baby girl,' she said. 'She just turned 16.' Ms. Abad, who lives in an apartment building a few blocks from the schools, said she was napping when a neighbor ran upstairs and told members of her family — her mother, at least one sister and a brother-in-law — of the shooting. They woke up Ms. Abad, and the family ran outside, shoeless, but by the time they got to the scene, Evette had already been taken away in an ambulance. They hurried to the hospital, and 15 minutes later, Ms. Abad was told that her daughter was dead. Ms. Abad said she had pulled her daughter out of Bronx Latin because of violence there and transferred her to a nearby high school, where she had been doing much better. 'She had been jumped and attacked multiple times,' Ms. Abad said. During school hours, the hilly block of Home Street outside the school building is quiet. On Tuesday, signs of the shooting remained even as a sort of normalcy returned inside. Children's voices came from the windows, mixing with the sounds of a nearby construction project. But police vehicles and school safety agents guarded the entrances and exits. Williams Miralda, 12, a seventh grader at the charter school, said he was on his way to football practice on Monday when gunshots rang out. He ran in the other direction with a crowd, but returned and saw Evette lying on the ground. 'I couldn't sleep at all, I kept waking up,' he said Tuesday. 'I felt like throwing up. I saw a dead body.' Williams said fights were common at the school, often bubbling up in the bathrooms during school hours or at nearby parks after the day ended. Last year, the fights were more frequent, he said, but this year they seemed more severe. 'I kind of worry about it,' he said. The Police Department has been involved in at least 22 incidents at the schools since last year, according to the department's quarterly school safety reports. It was unclear what behavior prompted the responses. But in most of the offenses, students were released to their schools for discipline and were not processed for an arrest or summons. Matthew Delgado, 20, who lives near the school building, said it had a reputation as a hotbed for fights. His younger brother had attended a school there years ago, but transferred out because he did not feel safe, he said. Since then, he said, things have improved. 'The area got way better,' Mr. Delgado said. 'It was getting safer, more quiet — but then right when you say that, things turn out really bad.' Chris Jones, 33, a maintenance worker at a shelter down the street, said he had seen two fights nearby involving schoolchildren in the last year, but nothing as violent or shocking as Monday's shooting. 'It's tragic,' he said. 'The vibe is usually just kids being kids, running around laughing and joking.'
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE raids in NYC: What to know about immigrant rights
NEW YORK (PIX11) – As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue in New York and throughout the nation, immigration advocates want undocumented people to know their rights. 'Regardless of your immigration status, you have guaranteed rights under the Constitution,' the American Civil Liberties Union website states. More Local News These are your rights protected under the Constitution if an ICE agent approaches you: The right to remain silent The right to refuse any questions from ICE agents The right to an attorney The right to refuse to open the door for ICE agents (if they have a signed warrant from a judge, you must comply) The ACLU also notes that an immigration agent has no right to search you or your belongings without probable cause. You may always object to the search. Anything you tell an officer can later be used against you in immigration court, the ACLU also notes. For undocumented immigrants living in the Big Apple, New York is considered a sanctuary city, which means it limits or declines to cooperate with the federal government's enforcement of immigration law. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny has said the NYPD is not cooperating with ICE in arresting undocumented people who have not been accused of a crime. The New York City Mayor's Office of Immigration Affairs has shared pamphlets on the rights of undocumented people during an ICE encounter. The booklets, which can be downloaded, are available in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. The pamphlets offer guidance on what undocumented people can do if they encounter ICE at home, in public spaces, or at work, and what to do if they are detained. Guidance from the City of New York includes: Saying, 'I do not want to speak with you' Not signing any documents or answering any questions before speaking to a lawyer A plan on what to do if detained by ICE Guidance from the experts: Catholic Charities has a handout you can print for guidance on dealing with ICE. The ACLU, an organization dedicated to constitutional liberties in the United States, also provides detailed information on immigration rights. For non-citizen parents of minor children with American citizenship, the Legal Aid Society provides steps to plan for the care and custody of the child should they be detained or arrested. Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYPD chief says they work with ICE agents to ‘go after criminals'
NEW YORK (PIX11) – The NYPD has participated in the arrest and detention of undocumented migrants alongside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents over the last few days amid a new crackdown led by President Donald Trump's administration. The raids have sparked questions about New York City's status as a sanctuary city, which means it limits or declines to cooperate with the federal government's enforcement of immigration law. ICE has said the sweeps are aimed at arresting migrants accused of committing crimes. More Local News At a press conference on Wednesday about an unrelated gun trafficking takedown, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny reiterated the NYPD is not cooperating with ICE in arresting undocumented people who have not been accused of a crime. 'We are being painfully clear in our intention and our participation in these operations,' Kenny said. 'We at the NYPD are not participating in any civil enforcement of immigration laws. What we are participating in is investigations and operations regarding criminals. If you are a migrant in New York City, you can go about your life with no problem, but the minute you break the law, you become a criminal, and then you become our problem.' The NYPD's gun trafficking takedown yielded the arrests of four suspected Tren De Aragua gang members. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the buy-and-bust operation, which spanned the Bronx and Queens, started a year ago — before the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration enforcement. 'I want to be extremely clear: The NYPD will always work with federal and local partners to take down international gangs like TDA who would wreak havoc on this city,' Katz said. Before ending the news conference, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch noted, 'The mayor has been very clear we are going to go after criminals regardless of their immigration status.' This story comprises reporting from The Associated Press and PIX11 News reporter Nicole Johnson. Matthew Euzarraga is a multimedia journalist from El Paso, Texas. He has covered local news and LGBTQIA topics in the New York City Metro area since 2021. He joined the PIX11 Digital team in 2023. You can see more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
