The heartbroken family of Evette Jeffrey — the 16-year-old Bronx girl tragically killed by a stray bullet — hopes the teen accused of the fatal shooting spends the rest of his life behind bars.
“Give him the fullest extent of the law. He took her away,” Evette’s grandmother told the Daily News Wednesday. “You want to do big-boy things? Just throw the book at him.”
The grieving grandma, who declined to give her name, has just one question for the suspect.
“What are you doing?” she asked. “You’re gonna go to jail for God knows how long you’re gonna end up doing. Somebody could come retaliate the same way you did.”
The 14-year-old boy arrested in the shocking Bronx stray-bullet slaying was taken to the hospital Wednesday amid fears he might harm himself — delaying his court appearance to face murder charges, officials said.
The teen was taken out of Bronx Central Booking and brought to a hospital Wednesday morning, about 24 hours after he was apprehended by a fugitive task force composed of NYPD cops and U.S. marshals.
The youth was nabbed Tuesday morning on Rev. James A. Polite Ave. near E. 163rd St., just six blocks from Monday’s gang-related shooting outside the Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School campus in Morrisania.
It’s expected that the teen will return to court after a physical and psychiatric evaluation, a law enforcement source said. Prosecutors have charged him with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
The teen violence was sparked by a fistfight involving the shooter near Home St. and Tinton Ave. That clash was between two local street gangs, KOD — Kreep on Davidson — and FOE — Forest Over Everything, police said.
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 he and his friends exited a walkway near the schoolyard a rival not involved in the earlier dustup ran up and punched the shooter in the face.
When 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.
“You had a chance to walk away. But you needed to fight,” Evette’s grandmother said. “But why? For what? For your pride?”
Evette was celebrating her one-year anniversary with her boyfriend when the shooting occurred. Her boyfriend tried to pull her behind a brick wall when the bullets started flying, her mother told the Daily News Tuesday.
Nobody else was hurt.
“Evette just celebrated her 16th birthday on April 13, just one day shy of a month before this tragic incident took place and snatched our baby from us,” James Serrano wrote in a GoFundMe post seeking donations to help the family during the tragedy. “Nonetheless, Evette Jeffrey was and still is a shining beacon of kindness, love, and unity for our family and the community around her.”
Cops on Wednesday were still looking for the 13-year-old accomplice who handed the shooter the gun. Investigators were hoping to grab the adolescent at an appointment he had Wednesday with a parole officer for an unrelated crime, but he failed to show up, sources said. Cops are now working with his family to broker his surrender, the sources said.
Evette’s grandmother believes her granddaughter knew the shooter from the neighborhood.
“I think he’s been here,” she said, looking around the family’s apartment. “There are so many kids, there’s so many of them. But I think he has been here. They all know each other.”
“You took her life away,” she added. “In a way, you took mine, too.”
Originally Published: May 14, 2025 at 4:02 PM EDT
