The distraught family of 16-year-old Evette Jeffrey, who was killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx one year ago Tuesday, is calling on the city to honor her memory with a street renaming.

On the evening of May 12, Jeffrey’s mother, aunt, cousin, and friends returned to the spot where she was killed outside of Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School. They hugged balloons, photographs, and stuffed animals. April 13 would have been the girl’s 17th birthday; instead, she will forever be 16.

Family members, including her cousin Destiny Melendez, say they will never get over the grief of her loss.

“It’s never gonna get better, no matter how many times people say it’s okay with time, it’s gonna get better. It’s just not. It’s not, and when her birthday passed, I wanted to text her at 12 o’clock, so bad, and just say, ‘Happy 17th birthday.’ But the fact that she’s forever 16 will forever break my heart. It doesn’t feel real,”  Melendez said. “I feel like I’m in a lucid dream, a bad one that I just can’t wake up from.”

On Tuesday evening, Jeffrey’s mother, aunt, cousin, and friends returned to the spot where she was killed outside of Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School on May 12, 2025. They hugged balloons, photographs and stuffed animals. April 13 would have marked the girl’s 17th Birthday, instead she will forever be 16.Photo by Dean Moses Locals gathered.Photo by Dean Moses On Tuesday evening, Jeffrey’s mother, aunt, cousin, and friends returned to the spot where she was killed outside of Bronx Career and College Preparatory High School on May 12, 2025. They hugged balloons, photographs and stuffed animals. April 13 would have marked the girl’s 17th Birthday, instead she will forever be 16.Photo by Dean Moses

The vigil was attended by religious leaders like Bishop Dr. Boyde Singletary and several police officers who had befriended the family since the child’s death. Together, they marked the somber occasion by releasing balloons into the evening sky.

Jeffery’s mother, Kristen Abad, showed supporters a sign she had handcrafted, overflowing with photographs of her daughter and shared memories of her, one of which was Jeffrey’s own baby talk that would make her smile.

“She made everything so fun in my life; she made my life happy. That was my happy time, and now she’s not here anymore. So, now I just have those memories,” Abad said.

Jeffrey’s death horrified the city last year. She had gone to the park to play when what police described as an “old school yard fight” escalated into a gang dispute between members of the Creep on Davidson gang and Forest Over Everything gang.

In the aftermath of the fight, a 13-year-old boy handed a 14-year-old a firearm, and when the shots were fired, the fatal bullet struck Jeffery as she innocently rode her scooter.

Jeffery’s aunt, Nereida Abad, broke down in tears and screamed in pain. She told amNewYork that the last year has been a torturous one, filled with suffering and constant court dates for the alleged killers.

“She made everything so fun in my life; she made my life happy. That was my happy time, and now she’s not here anymore. So, now I just have those memories,” Abad said.Photo by Dean Moses “It’s so hard to continue with life knowing that my niece will never be able to come over for Christmas again, we will never be able to hear her jokes. I’m still suffering today a year in as I did last year. Today, my life is destroyed because my niece is not here anymore,” Nereida Abad said.Photo by Dean Moses

Through her tears, she lamented the slow wheels of justice, bemoaning that the trial for the shooter still had not begun.

“It’s so hard to continue with life knowing that my niece will never be able to come over for Christmas again, and we will never be able to hear her jokes. I’m still suffering today a year in as I did last year. Today, my life is destroyed because my niece is not here anymore,” Nereida Abad said. “She’s just a baby, and she lost her life while she was riding a scooter in the park. I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do?”

The inconsolable aunt looked back over the year and wept that Jeffery is now just one of many children who had been caught in the crossfire, pointing most recently to 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore, who was fatally struck in Brooklyn by a stray bullet.

Still, the family says they don’t want Jeffrey to become just another statistic, her life and name forgotten to time — they want New Yorkers to know she was a life-loving teen with aspirations and a whole life ahead of her. The family demanded that a street or a bench by the beach be named after her, so people will remember.

“We really would like to get a street named after her. We want this. You know, something that her friends can come out and see when they want to see her,” Kristen Abad said. “Something that we can have for her, something that so that she could be remembered, so that she won’t be forgotten.”

Releasing the balloons.Photo by Dean Moses