A 12-year-old boy rode a hand-me-down bicycle to a Bronx bodega on a Saturday afternoon and never came home, and the neighborhood mother who gave him that bike is demanding the mayor answer for it.
Jacob Freytes was struck by a stray bullet shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday near Wanda Deli Grocery on Elliott Place, close to the Grand Concourse in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx. A gunman described as a possible gang member opened fire at rivals outside the store. Jacob, riding the bicycle a neighbor had given him just one day earlier, was caught in the crossfire and killed. Two other men were wounded.
By Sunday, police had arrested 45-year-old William Ferrer outside his home in connection with the slaying. Ferrer, who has at least a half-dozen prior arrests stretching back to 1999, now faces charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter, second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree assault, and illegal weapons possession, the New York Post reported. His prior record includes drug possession in 2013, marijuana possession and drunken driving in 2009, and possession of stolen property in the Bronx in 2004, according to sources.
Fox News video showed Ferrer being led away in handcuffs by detectives from the 44th Precinct. The arrest drew a crowd of angry neighbors.
Miledy Rosario, a mother of four who lives near the Freytes family in Mount Eden, had given Jacob the bicycle just the day before the shooting. Her daughter Marlyn, also 12, had gotten a new one, and Rosario offered the old bike to Jacob.
Rosario told the New York Post how the boy reacted:
"I bought a new bicycle for my daughter, and I asked him, 'Hey, do you want [hers]?' He said, 'Oh, thank you so much. I'm gonna talk to my mom.' And they gave him permission to have the bicycle.... And, you know, he was really happy."
Less than 24 hours later, Jacob was on that bicycle outside the bodega when the bullets started flying. He never had a chance.
Rosario's daughter Marlyn, who had been friends with Jacob, said he "was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Her father, Daniel Rosario, described the toll on his own children:
"My kids are traumatized. My daughter, who was just talking to you, was in tears yesterday. Crying all night. You see them running around the street now, but they are traumatized."
Daniel Rosario said Jacob used to set up a small basketball hoop outside the family's apartment door and play with the Rosario children. His son told him Saturday night: "Dad, I won't be able to play basketball no more."
While Mayor Zohran Mamdani marched in the Bronx's Dominican Day parade on Sunday, Miledy Rosario stood in her neighborhood and directed her anger squarely at him.
"I feel that the mayor that's celebrating in the parade right now should take better care of this block, because there's a lot of gang members."
Rosario did not stop there. She said the shooting was not an isolated event and that gang violence on the block had been a persistent, known problem that city leadership had failed to address:
"This is not the first time this thing happened here. This has been happening a lot of times. He should know that there is a lot of gangs on that block there, and they had to be a cleanup."
She also pointed to what she described as a visible reduction in police presence at the very corner where Jacob was killed. "Before there was police on that corner," Rosario said. "But yesterday there was no one there."
Rosario's frustration carried a mother's fear as much as a citizen's grievance:
"I'm a mom of four kids, and I'm really scared. This kid was just running around on a bicycle, and got shot. Jacob didn't deserve this."
Mamdani issued a statement Saturday after the shooting. He said his "heart breaks" for Jacob's "family, friends and all those who loved him" and added:
"Their loss is unimaginable. I am praying for the speedy recovery of the other two victims of this shooting. I'm grateful for the hospital staff, and the NYPD for their work to find those responsible for this heinous act."
The mayor also said: "Our children should be able to ride their bikes on a nice summer day in their neighborhood without fear of being shot. We cannot accept this violence as normal."
Rosario heard the words and was not persuaded. "He's talking about stopping violence," she said. "But it is still continuing. And so if they don't clean that block there, we're gonna continue to see the same thing."
The gap between the mayor's statement and the conditions on Elliott Place is the story Rosario is telling. Mamdani said children should ride bikes without fear. A child rode a bike and was killed. Mamdani said the city cannot accept violence as normal. Residents say the violence on that block has been normal for a long time, and that the city has done nothing to change it.
Jacob's father, Jesus Freytes, is a retired NYPD sergeant. Sources told the Post he previously worked in the same Bronx precinct that covers the area where his son was shot. The fact that a retired officer's child was killed by a stray bullet in a neighborhood the officer once patrolled adds a grim personal dimension to the broader failure of public safety in Mount Eden.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch addressed the arrest in a statement:
"Jacob was an innocent bystander on his bike when he was taken from his family yesterday in an act of senseless gun violence. No arrest can ever ease the pain of this unimaginable loss, but the NYPD will continue to do everything in our power to seek justice for Jacob."
Investigators are looking into whether two street gangs known to operate in the Mount Eden area, the Trinitarios and Sev Side Pinni, were behind the shooting, according to sources. Neither group has been officially confirmed as connected to the attack, and the investigation remains open.
Several questions remain unanswered. The identity of the gunman who opened fire at rivals has not been publicly confirmed as Ferrer or someone else. The specific charges suggest prosecutors believe they can tie Ferrer directly to the shooting, but S1 does not clarify whether he was the triggerman or played another role. The condition of the two other men wounded in the attack has not been updated beyond Mamdani's hope for a "speedy recovery."
Ferrer's arrest record, spanning more than two decades and including drug charges, drunken driving, and possession of stolen property, raises its own question: how a man with that history was free on a Saturday afternoon in a neighborhood already known for gang violence.
Miledy Rosario is not a politician or an activist. She is a mother who gave a neighbor's kid a bicycle because her daughter got a new one. She watched that boy light up with gratitude on Friday. She learned he was dead on Saturday. And on Sunday, while the mayor walked in a parade, she stood on the block where it happened and said what every resident of that neighborhood already knew: the city let this happen by leaving a gang-infested corner unpoliced and unaddressed.
When elected officials tell grieving communities that violence "cannot be accepted as normal," the least they can do is act like they mean it before the next child is buried.
