A 13-year-old boy who was grazed when a teen gunman shot and killed his 15-year-old friend in a Bronx apartment told the Daily News he was saved by a cell phone — the bullet ricocheting off the device in his hands after it exited his slain pal’s head.
The teen said he was sitting next to his friend, Riley Billingslea, when another boy, 16, fired off the round inside the Castle Arms apartment building in Kingsbridge Wednesday evening.
The bullet that killed Billingslea struck the phone the 13-year-old boy was holding, altering the round’s trajectory so it grazed his chest instead of passing through it, the teen said.
The News is not naming the 13-year-old victim because the shooter remains at large.
“If I hadn’t been holding my phone, I would have lost my life,” the emotional teen told The News during an exclusive interview at his mother’s Bronx apartment Thursday night. “Everyone at the hospital said I was lucky to be alive.”
Damaged phone pictured when a 16 year-old playing with a gun fatally shot 15 year-old victim in an apartment on Claflin Ave in the Bronx. (Kerry Burke/New York Daily News)
The teen said he and his friends were “hanging out” in the apartment when the shooter began horsing around with the black handgun in the Claflin Ave. apartment building near W. 197th St. There were about a half-dozen teens in the apartment at the time of the shooting, he said.
“We were in the house. (He) was playing with the gun, a black gun,” he said. “We told him to take the magazine out of the gun, but he wouldn’t listen to us. I was sitting next to Riley. I was right there next to Riley.”
The next thing the teen knew, his ears were ringing, and his friend was covered in blood.
“I was checking myself and I saw the blood,” he said. “I didn’t want to see that. So I just left. I’m so sorry. It’s emotional. Riley didn’t deserve that.”
Teen was wounded when a 16 year-old playing with a gun fatally shot 15 year-old victim in an apartment on Claflin Ave in the Bronx. (Kerry Burke/New York Daily News)
Police sources said Riley got into a quarrel with the 16-year-old shooter, who opened his backpack, pulled out a gun, put a magazine in it and fired about 5:20 p.m.
The 13-year-old said he wasn’t sure whether the pair had been arguing, but that he heard the teen shooter say, “I’m going to throw the pain,” before a shot rang out.
“I was shocked when he did it to Riley,” the teen said.
After the shooting, he fled for his life, saying, “I got out of there so fast, I left my cell phone and my shoes.”
The teen’s mother shared an image with The News taken by detectives at the scene of her son’s damaged phone, which had spider-web cracks radiating out from a bullet hole in the screen as the device lay next to a pool of blood.
“If he hadn’t had the phone where he had it, it would have been over,” the boy’s mother said. “I wish it were only that way for the other family.”
Riley died at the scene. He lived with his grandmother in an apartment just under a mile away from the Castle Arms.
“We were just boys playing,” the 13-year-old said. “And then suddenly I saw the gun. And then he shot Riley.”
Teen was wounded when a 16 year-old playing with a gun fatally shot 15 year-old victim in an apartment on Claflin Ave in the Bronx. (Kerry Burke/New York Daily News)
The wounded teen was treated at St. Barnabas Hospital after fleeing to his home.
He and Riley met about three years ago. The slain teen attended John F. Kennedy High School.
“He was a good person — and he didn’t have to go down like this,” Riley’s anguished grandmother Elaine Rogers said. “He was witty, had an answer for everything.”
The shooter ran off and has not been caught. No gun was recovered from the scene, police said.