A 15-year-old accused of opening fire on a Yonkers street corner, killing a man and injuring four teenagers, has been arraigned on charges including murder and attempted murder.
As relatives including his mother, aunt, grandfather and older brother looked on, the teenager did not enter a plea when he appeared in the youth part of Westchester County Court Monday afternoon, about 18 hours after the shooting Sunday night on Palisade Avenue near Elm Street.
The Journal News/lohud is not naming the alleged killer because of his age. He is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree attempted assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon
and first-degree reckless endangerment, all felonies.
He only spoke when giving his date of birth — he turns 16 in two months — and to let Westchester Judge Sheralyn Pulver know he understood the terms of the orders of protection barring him from any contact with the surviving victims.
Assistant District Attorney Craig Ascher asked for the teenager to be held without bail, saying he fired eight shots into the crowd before fleeing up the block and crouching next to a car. The gun believed to be used in the shooting was found near him under the car, Ascher said.
The prosecutor said the teenager was never out of sight of a police officer once the shots were fired.
Police identified that officer as Captain Federico Quezada, who was on duty in the area when he heard the shots. He saw the teen flee up Elm Street towards Nepperhan Avenue, followed him and then assisted as responding patrol officers took the teen into custody, police said.
How authorities say the shooting happened
The shooting occurred just after 8:40 p.m., Sunday. The 20-year-old man who was killed was hit in the back. The other victims, a 14-year-old girl, two 15-year-old boys and a 16-year-old boy, were hit in the stomach, leg, shoulder, fingers and ear, Ascher said.
All were hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said.
Authorities have not discussed any possible motives in the shooting or said whether the man who was killed was the intended target but police have increased their presence in the neighborhood in large part to deter any potential retlaiation.
Yvonne Borkowski, the teenager's lawyer, did not request bail and Pulver ordered him held at Woodfield Cottage, the county's secure juvenile detention center in Valhalla.
Borkowski and the defendant's family declined to speak after the arraignment.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Teen arraigned in Yonkers shooting that killed 1 man, injured 4 teens
