{"id":326233,"date":"2026-08-20T23:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/326233\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T23:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T23:24:13","slug":"16-year-old-bronx-boy-killed-by-friend-playing-with-gun-thought-pistol-was-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/326233\/","title":{"rendered":"16-year-old Bronx boy killed by friend playing with gun thought pistol was empty"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 16-year-old boy who was killed as he and a friend horsed around with a gun<\/a> in the Bronx believed the pistol was empty moments before he was fatally shot in the head, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Thursday.<\/p>\n

John Nunez, his 16-year-old pal, and a third teen were playing with the firearm inside a bedroom of a home on Prospect Ave. near E.169th St. on Aug. 10 when the 16-year-old asked the victim if there was a bullet still in the chamber, Kenny said at a briefing at NYPD headquarters.<\/p>\n

\"APolice investigate after a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot inside a house on Prospect Ave. near E.169th St. in the Bronx on Aug. 16, 2026. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re playing with a firearm. (John) is asked, \u2018Is there one in the head?\u2019 meaning, is there one in the chamber?\u201d Kenny explained.<\/p>\n

John told his friend, \u201cNo,\u201d so the other boy popped out the magazine, pointed the pistol at Nunez, and pulled the trigger, Kenny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was one in the chamber, and he accidentally shoots (Nunez) in the head,\u201d Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Nunez was shot around 5:10 a.m. and died at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"16yr<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

The body of 16-year-old John Nunez is removed from a building on Prospect Avenue in the Bronx on Aug. 10, 2026. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old who pulled the trigger ran off. Cops have identified the teen and were actively searching for him, police said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Cops questioned the third friend, an 18-year-old boy, but the older teen wasn\u2019t charged, cops said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hurt. We\u2019re devastated. Our hearts are shattered,\u201d John\u2019s oldest sister, Sol Nunez, said at the family\u2019s Bronx home the night of the shooting. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grieving big sister said she was certain the gun did not belong to her brother.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did not own any gun. He did not own anything,\u201d she said. \u201cMe and him, we share a room, so I know every time that he would come home, I would check through his stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was really on top of him most of the time. He did not own, like, anything,\u201d Sol Nunez said.<\/p>\n

\"Family<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Family members grieve at the scene after a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot inside a house on Prospect Ave. near E.169th St. in the Bronx on Aug. 10, 2026. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The teen suspect ran off with the pistol, but left the magazine behind, Kenny said. A shell casing was also recovered at the scene.<\/p>\n

The teen cops are looking for has five prior arrests for crimes that include burglary and robbery, Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Nunez described her brother as \u201ca really funny person\u201d who loved to play with children.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

Courtesy of family<\/p>\n

John Nunez, 16, was fatally shot in a home on Prospect Ave. in the Bronx on Monday, August 10, 2026. (Courtesy of family)<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time he would come in the house. The joy came back. He was always in my heart,\u201d she said. \u201cHe is always gonna stay by me. He\u2019s always gonna be a part of me. And I will just always remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n

John attended Metropolitan High School as a senior and was the youngest of three siblings, with two older sisters. He enjoyed playing basketball and video games, his sister said.<\/p>\n

After high school, he aspired to join the U.S. Marines like his sister and uncle, relatives said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always making sure that I was okay. He was always making sure that he was there for me, and it\u2019s really heartbreaking that I won\u2019t have that anymore,\u201d Nunez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 16-year-old boy who was killed as he and a friend horsed around with a gun in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-326233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-city","tag-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-county","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-crime","tag-sub-county-region","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\/326233","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=326233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}