Police have arrested a Bronx man in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Jacob Freytes, who authorities said was an innocent bystander when gunfire erupted outside a Mount Eden bodega Saturday evening.
Freytes was shot in the shoulder outside of Supermarket Bodega on Elliot Place in Mount Eden.
Surveillance footage shared by the United Bodegas of America shows a scuffle among a group of people outside the bodega just before 5 p.m. The video shows an unidentified person watching the incident, and then appearing to pull a gun and fire into the crowd multiple times before fleeing the scene.
Freytes is seen in the footage leaving the bodega and getting on his bike when the scuffle breaks out. He stops to watch the confrontation before gunfire erupts, then runs back into the bodega. Footage from inside the bodega then shows Freytes holding his chest and collapsing in an aisle.
The NYPD said Freytes was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A 25-year-old man and a 34-year-old man were also wounded in the shooting. Police said both of those men are in stable condition.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced Sunday that detectives arrested William Ferrer, 45, of the Bronx, outside his home. He was charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, Tisch said. Attorney information for Ferrer was not immediately available.
"Jacob was an innocent bystander on his bike when he was taken from his family yesterday in an act of senseless gun violence," Tisch wrote on X.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani addressed the shooting in a social media post, calling Freytes’ killing and its impact on his family and friends “unimaginable.”
“Our children should be able to ride their bikes on a nice summer day in their neighborhood without fear of being shot,” Mamdani wrote. “We cannot accept this violence as normal.”
Fernando Mateo, a spokesperson for the UBA and founder of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, compared the shooting to a pair of recent attacks on cab drivers in Brooklyn. Mateo, who previously ran for mayor as a Republican, called on authorities to stiffen penalties for people carrying illegal guns.
“Our call to action is directed to the governor and to the mayor of this city. Let's get tough on crime,” Mateo said during a press conference on Sunday morning at the scene of the shooting.
The NYPD said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
This story has been updated with new information.
Jill Webb contributed reporting.
