{"id":312342,"date":"2026-08-03T10:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T10:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/312342\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T10:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T10:53:14","slug":"bronx-community-gathers-to-mourn-12-year-old-jacob-freytes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/312342\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx community gathers to mourn 12-year-old Jacob Freytes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mourners gathered in the Bronx on Sunday to remember 12-year-old Jacob Freytes<\/a>, who was killed after being struck by a stray bullet while riding his bicycle.<\/p>\n

Family, friends and neighbors attended Freytes’ wake, joined by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Attorney General Letitia James and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.<\/p>\n

Freytes’ mother, Milgdalia Martinez, said she spoke with Mamdani during the wake.<\/p>\n

“He said he was going to help,” Martinez said. “We did speak, and when you guys do see changes, just know it was on Jacob’s name.”<\/p>\n

Candy Faber, a friend of Martinez, remembered Jacob as a child surrounded by a loving family.<\/p>\n

“He was raised by some great parents. He had a great family. He had great support,” Faber said. “It was just so unfortunate that he left us in that kind of way.”<\/p>\n

Friends said they are still struggling to process Jacob’s death.<\/p>\n

Fifteen-year-old Simon Garcia, who lives in the same building as the Freytes family, said the 12-year-old was kind, energetic and loved basketball.<\/p>\n

“He was very generous, he was very thoughtful, very energetic and just a funny kid,” Garcia said. “Me and him would always be playing basketball outside because there was a little courtyard where we all live, and I remember him saying he wanted to be a basketball player when he grew up. I always believed in his dream.”<\/p>\n

Garcia said he was with Jacob just moments before the shooting.<\/p>\n

“He told me that he would be right back and that he was going to go buy a ball, and I said, ‘All right, be careful,'” Garcia said. “That was the last time I saw him.”<\/p>\n

Police said Freytes was riding his bicycle to a neighborhood bodega on July 25 to buy a ball when gunfire erupted during a fight outside the store. Investigators said he was struck by a stray bullet.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video shows a group of men fighting in a crosswalk before one of the men pulled out a gun and fired multiple shots, according to investigators.<\/p>\n

Hours after the shooting, the NYPD announced the arrest of 45-year-old William Ferrer, charging him with second-degree murder and other offenses. Police said he pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and was ordered held without bail.<\/p>\n

Maria Lopez, with the anti-violence organization Guns Down Life Up, said seeing so many children at the wake was especially heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

“These kids need to be right now in the parks, playing in the pool, enjoying the weather,” Lopez said. “But meanwhile, they’re in the front of a home, seeing their friends, saying their last goodbye in a casket. That’s not right. That’s not fair.”<\/p>\n

Neighbor Dafne Perez, who said she has known the family since Martinez was pregnant with Jacob, remembered him as a bright child with a promising future.<\/p>\n

“He was just a very, very bright kid. He had a future, a bright future ahead of him,” Perez said. “I just wish I could’ve got to see him live his whole life. It’s just a heartbreaking moment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mourners gathered in the Bronx on Sunday to remember 12-year-old Jacob Freytes, who was killed after being struck…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[25,3691,9,24,12,63,122,124,123,129,27,200],"class_list":["post-312342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-top-stories","tag-emma-barnett","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-the-bronx","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312342","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=312342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}