A 12-year-old Walden boy was killed by stray gunfire while visiting family in the Bronx on Saturday, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Jacob Freytes, a student at Valley Central Middle School, was struck by a stray bullet outside a bodega in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx after a man allegedly opened fire during an argument with a group of people, according to police.<\/p>\n
Police arrested William Ferrer, 45, of the Bronx, on Sunday. He was charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Authorities said the shooting stemmed from a gang-related dispute involving the Trinitarios and Sev Side Pinni gangs. Investigators said Jacob was an innocent bystander.<\/p>\n
The Sergeants Benevolent Association identified Jacob as the son of retired New York City Police Detective Sgt. Jesus Freytes. In a statement, the union said it was saddened by the loss and urged prosecutors to pursue the case to the fullest extent of the law.<\/p>\n
According to published reports, Jacob had left a nearby apartment courtyard to buy a baseball at a neighborhood bodega when the gunfire erupted shortly before 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
Assemblyman Brian Maher said the tragedy hit especially close to home because Jacob was in the same grade and attended the same middle school as his daughter.<\/p>\n
“Our hearts are with Jacob’s family, friends, classmates, teachers and the entire Valley Central community as they grieve this devastating loss,” Maher said. “Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers during this incredibly difficult time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 12-year-old Walden boy was killed by stray gunfire while visiting family in the Bronx on Saturday, authorities…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,35867,35868,35863,8885,9,24,63,779,35865,129,131,130,35866,4941,35862,35864],"class_list":["post-308213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-circleville","tag-coldenham","tag-maybrook","tag-montgomery","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-orange-county","tag-pine-bush","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-town-of-wallkill","tag-ulster-county","tag-walden","tag-wallkill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}