A New York City Education Department employee and an ex-con have been arrested for murder for their roles in the shooting of a father of four out celebrating his birthday in the Bronx — but the actual shooter remains on the loose, police said Tuesday.
Education Department worker Naya Brown, 26, was arrested early Tuesday and charged with murder for the Jan. 25 slaying of Keon Gill, officials said.
An accused accomplice, Pernell Warren, 37, was arrested for murder on Feb. 1. Warren spent five years in prison on a drug conviction and was released in 2023, according to court records. His parole ended last May.
“Somebody needs to answer for this,” the victim’s mother, Brenda Gill, 68, said Wednesday. “No parent should have to bury their child … This is not making any sense to me.”
Keon was shot on his 44th birthday and his 25-year-old brother was wounded after they exited a bar in Riverdale and headed to their car parked outside, cops said.
Brown, Warren and the unapprehended shooter drove together to the bar looking to settle a beef with the brothers, according to a law enforcement source.
Brown is accused of going into the bar and confriming to her accomplices the brothers were inside. She then let her accomplices know when the brothers were leaving, according to a law enforcement source.
The brothers were shot near W. 242nd St. and Broadway in Riverdale about 2:50 a.m., cops said.
Warren is accused of being the getaway driver, the law enforcement source said.
“What makes this grief even harder to bear is knowing that the person who did this to him is still out there, still free,” Brenda said. “We live with the fear and the uncertainty of not knowing when justice will come … Our home no longer feels like a place of comfort. The pain of losing him is something we carry every single day.”
Keon, shot in the chest, was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died. The bullet pierced his heart before reaching his lungs, his mother said.
“His kids keep asking me, ‘Grandma, please wake him up,’” she said Tuesday. “I can’t wake him up. I wish I could.”
Courtesy of Family
Keon Gill. (Courtesy of Family)
Keon’s brother, who was shot in the leg and grazed in the head, was rushed to the same hospital. He is haunted by the fact that the spray of bullets only narrowly missed killing him too.
“Sometimes he gets me so upset I start screaming,” his mother said. “He says ‘Ma, Ke died in my arms.’ Every morning, like clockwork, we’re up at 5 a.m. We talk.”
Keon, the father of two boys and two girls, lived in Middletown in Orange County, N.Y., but had gone with his brother to celebrate his birthday in the Bronx, where he used to live.
Courtesy of Mahogany Gill
Keon Gill (second right) with his children Keon Gill Jr. (left) Keymell Gill (second left) and Jeneyah Gill (right). (Courtesy of Mahogany Gill)
An email to the Department of Education about Brown’s arrest was not immediately returned.
Warren lives in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx, according to cops. He was ordered held without bail when he was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court the day after his arrest.
Brenda attended his arraignment to lay eyes on the man accused of playing a role in her son’s slaying.
“I was sick to my stomach,” she said. “I thought I was going to throw up.”
With Cayla Bamberger and Rocco Parascandola