Officials believe the victim was an innocent bystander.
The girl was pronounced dead after being shot in the head near Bronx Latin School on Monday in the Morrisania section around 5 p.m.
Video recovered from a school camera shows children leaving the school yard and entering an alley alongside the building.
Officials say the video shows a fight break out between a group of kids gathered in the alley.
They say a 14-year-old boy, wearing a white t-shirt and shorts, is punched in the face and knocked to the ground by another male, wearing a grey hoodie.
At some point, someone slips the 14-year-old a pistol, who then fires three shots into the crowd, hitting 16-year-old Evette Jeffrey in the head.
Police say Jeffrey was riding from the school yard on a scooter, and was an innocent bystander.
"She does not engage in the fight and immediately walks over to another male at the edge of the group who attempts to pull her behind a brick wall for cover," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. "When the shots are fired, our victim, who we believe to be an unintended target, is struck. And she immediately falls to the ground with a gunshot wound to the head. As the other children run away for their lives."
Paramedics were on the scene within five minutes.
"The little girl was on the floor. They were just giving her CPR, and it was devastating. I was with my daughter," said one woman.
The mother of a 13-year-old girl says she tried to console the victim's mother who fell to the ground in despair.
"She was like, no, that's not my daughter, and then she ran and right there she lost balance," the woman said.
"I have one child. And I can't even imagine what that mother is going through," Mayor Eric Adams said. "This destroys us."
Adams addressed a crowd of parents who gathered, their nerves on edge.
Other leaders visited Lincoln Hospital where the victim was taken. The 16-year-old was later pronounced dead.
"And mom is absolutely inconsolable. She got the worst phone call that no parent should ever get. Ever," Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said.
A dad who lives across the street told Eyewitness News that he immediately called his two teenagers when he heard.
"Because I knew it had to be around here. This is just a hot block," said the neighbor, Frank Dunn.
He and other worried parents are begging fellow moms and dads to understand what their kids are up to.
"You've got a lot of parents nowadays who are young, and they just want their kids out of the house," Dunn said. "Get out the house. I don't want you here. Go. I don't care what you're doing."
Officials say the Jeffrey, who just turned 16 last month, is a student at the nearby Morris High School.
Police are now looking for the 14-year-old boy as a person of interest in connection to the shooting, and they may be looking to make more arrests as they continue to investigate how that young shooter got his hands on the gun.
"Tonight, a 16-year-old is dead at the hands of a 14-year-old with a gun," Tisch said. "These are babies killing babies and it has to stop."
So far in 2025, there has been 28 victims, and 17 shooters, all under the age of 18, in just over four months. In 2024, in the Bronx, shooting victims under the age of 18 went up 200% compared to 2018.
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