{"id":317019,"date":"2026-08-09T02:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317019\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T02:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:02:10","slug":"bronx-mother-pushes-jacobs-law-after-12-year-old-killed-by-stray-bullet-nbc-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/317019\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx mother pushes \u201cJacob\u2019s Law\u201d after 12-year-old killed by stray bullet \u2013 NBC New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bronx mother is calling for a new state law after her 12-year-old son, Jacob Freytas, was shot and killed by a stray bullet while riding his bicycle.<\/p>\n

Migdalia Martinez joined legislators in Mount Eden Saturday to unveil the proposal, called \u201cJacob\u2019s Law,\u201d which would strengthen penalties for criminals who recklessly murder a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of riding his bike, he is resting in an urn,\u201d said Martinez. \u201cI want to be able to not only be at peace knowing that this man is going to jail for the rest of his life without parole, but also be rest assured that anyone who kills a child faces the same exact thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, Freytas was riding his bicycle outside of a bodega when a stray bullet struck him in the chest<\/a>, killing him.<\/p>\n

Police said the bullet was fired by 45-year-old William Ferrer, who allegedly opened fire after a fight broke out involving five other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacob\u2019s law sends a clear message \u2013 if you take a child\u2019s life, you get life,\u201d said Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican nominee for New York State Attorney General and a former prosecutor.\u00a0 She stood alongside Martinez at Saturday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n

Ferrer was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.\u00a0 He has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacob\u2019s Law\u201d would mandate an automatic life prison sentence for anyone whose reckless criminal conduct leads to the death of a child.<\/p>\n

Freytas was the son of a retired NYPD sergeant and dreamed of following in his father\u2019s footsteps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bronx mother is calling for a new state law after her 12-year-old son, Jacob Freytas, was shot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-317019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317019","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=317019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}