{"id":324711,"date":"2026-08-19T05:24:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/324711\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T05:24:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:24:16","slug":"mother-pleads-for-suspect-to-surrender-after-teen-shot-in-the-head-in-bronx-apartment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/324711\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother pleads for suspect to surrender after teen shot in the head in Bronx apartment"},"content":{"rendered":"

KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS, Bronx (WABC) — A grieving family in Kingsbridge Heights is calling for justice after 15-year-old Riley Billingslea was fatally shot during a gathering inside a Claflin Avenue apartment.<\/p>\n

Billingslea’s mother and grandmother wept at a vigil on Tuesday as relatives and neighbors described the anguish of losing the teen, who police say was shot in the head last Wednesday<\/a> during an argument with another teen.<\/p>\n

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A 13-year-old was also grazed by a bullet.<\/p>\n

Elaine Rogers, Billingslea’s grandmother, had a message for the 16-year-old accused of killing her grandson.<\/p>\n

“I want to say to the parents: if you’re hiding him, let him go-let him face justice. He took my grandson. Riley was a really good kid. He was,” she said before breaking down in tears.<\/p>\n

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Rogers said her grandson was the biggest joy in her life.<\/p>\n

Community members gathered on the street, expressing frustration over youth violence and the accessibility of guns.<\/p>\n

“It’s like Russian roulette – they’re just shooting and killing! And don’t care who they doing it (to). Where are these kids getting these guns from? I don’t know, but I’m tired right now,” one community member said. Another added, “Stop calling on the system because the system may get it right and it may get it wrong. But a father can always get it right when he shows up to be a dad.”<\/p>\n

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Billingslea had been attending military school and was looking toward a promising future.<\/p>\n

Friends said his death has left their world dimmer.<\/p>\n

“He always made everybody laugh. That was something Riley knew how to do. He made a lot of people laugh,” said friend Kaden Hoheb. “This world is just full of hatred. And I just want the world to be better.”<\/p>\n

At a balloon release, Billingslea’s mother, Ketrice Riley, also urged the teen involved to come forward.<\/p>\n

“Young man, turn yourself in. Do right. Riley ain’t never did nobody wrong,” she said. “Put an end to this. Where we can stop asking questions – you can let us know you meant nothing. This was an accident. Let me understand that. Because right now I can’t. Riley was my love.”<\/p>\n

The investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n

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Have a breaking news tip or an idea for a story we should cover? Send it to Eyewitness News using the form below. If attaching a video or photo, terms of use apply.<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS, Bronx (WABC) — A grieving family in Kingsbridge Heights is calling for justice after 15-year-old Riley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122298,9,11,10],"class_list":["post-324711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-122298","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324711","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=324711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}