New York City police have arrested a man in the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy who was killed as an innocent bystander in the Bronx over the weekend. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced that detectives had taken William Ferrer into custody in the murder of the child and the wounding of two other people in the Mount Eden neighborhood, a breakthrough in a case that had shaken the borough.
Ferrer was led out of the 44th precinct in handcuffs in a perp walk captured by cameras in the heart of the city, as he now faces charges in connection with the shooting. The arrest came together quickly, described as a very fast arrest even by the standards of NYPD detectives, who moved to identify and apprehend a suspect within days of the deadly gunfire.
Commissioner Tisch called the killing a senseless act of gun violence, underscoring the anger over the death of a child who had nothing to do with the dispute that erupted into shooting. The commissioner said the arrest covered both the murder of the 12-year-old boy and the shooting of the two other people who were struck during the same burst of violence.
The shooting unfolded on Saturday afternoon at the corner of Elliott Place and Walton Avenue in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx, outside a corner bodega. Police said the 12-year-old, known to family and friends as Kai and previously identified as Jacob Freytes, had ridden his bike to the store to buy a ball when a fight broke out between two groups of men and gunfire erupted. Struck by a bullet, the boy ran inside the bodega for shelter but did not survive, an innocent bystander caught in violence that was not aimed at him.
Outside the bodega, neighbors left rose petals, candles and some of the boy's favorite things in a growing memorial. Those who knew him described a helpful child with big dreams who had told them he wanted to play in the NBA, and said the bike he was riding had been lent to him by a neighbor only the day before, turning an ordinary errand on a summer afternoon into a tragedy that has devastated the block. Neighbors said his principal came to visit the grieving family, and that the boy's father worked for the NYPD.
In addition to the boy who was killed, two other people were shot during the incident, according to police. The attack near the corner store turned an ordinary Bronx block into a crime scene and set off an urgent search for the gunman that had, until this arrest, left the neighborhood waiting for answers about who was responsible.
Investigators had initially said the shooter remained at large, with no suspects or arrests in the immediate aftermath, as detectives worked the case and canvassed the Mount Eden area for witnesses and video. The announcement of Ferrer's arrest marked a turning point, resolving the manhunt that had followed the killing of the young boy near the bodega.
Ferrer was expected to face formal charges as the case moves forward, with the NYPD pointing to the speed of the arrest as a sign of the priority placed on the killing of a child. Authorities said they were continuing to investigate the circumstances that led to the gunfire in Mount Eden and the shooting of the two additional victims alongside the boy who died.