Teen suspect busted in shooting of Bronx boy, 8
Teen suspect busted in shooting of Bronx boy, 8 - A 15-year-old gang banger was busted Friday for shooting a Bronx boy in a botched revenge plot, police said.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Eduardo Rodriguez had intended to shoot a teen from a rival group Tuesday night, but ended up plugging 8-year-old Armando Bigo.
Rodriguez was charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
Armando’s mom said she was elated a suspect was nabbed.
“We are so happy to hear they got someone, but it’s sad that it’s a teenager. It’s just a child,” said mom Ely Flores, 31. “How do all these kids have guns on the streets? It's hard to believe a little teenager could get a gun.”
The beef began last year when three teens chased one of Rodriguez’s crew into the street, where he was hit by a car and killed, police said.
The traffic fatality was “at the core of the ongoing violence back and forth between these two crews,” Kelly said.
On Tuesday night, Rodriguez rolled by the Soundview bodega on his bike, looking to settle the score, but ended up hitting Armando, who was in the store with his mother to buy potato chips, police said .
The second-grader was still in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center with a wound to the left shoulder. His mother said that her son was still very sore.
“He’s doing okay,” said his mom. “He walked yesterday, but he was in so much pain, and they gave him morphine. They wanted to see if the bullet moved down.”
Relatives said the slug was lodged in a bone near his neck, but he’s expected to fully recover and could be released in a few days.