A 13-year-old boy was busted this week in the shooting death of an innocent 28-year-old man who was simply meeting his out-of-town friend in the Bronx late last month, cops said Wednesday.
The young teen turned himself in Tuesday afternoon to face charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and criminal use of a firearm in the broad-daylight April 23 shooting death of Daoud Marji, a 28-year-old plumber’s apprentice from Yonkers, police said.
Daoud was not the intended target, nor was a 33-year-old woman who was struck in the hip and wounded in the fray, according to law enforcement sources.
The motive for the deadly violence – and the target of the boy’s gunfire – were not immediately known.
Daoud was meeting up with a pal from Detroit at University Avenue and West Kingsbridge Road just before 5 p.m. when bullets flew – with a single round striking him in the head, according to cops and his father.
He was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he clung to life but ultimately succumbed to his injuries.
Daoud’s dad Saed Marji, 56, previously told The Post he encouraged his son not to travel to the Bronx, because he heard the area was bad.
He was heartbroken when his son’s pal called him with the shattering news.
“I’m a strong man, but I’m shocked. I have to take care of my family. My wife, she’s very bad.”
“What am I going to do? He was my blood,” the heartbroken dad added.
The alleged teen shooter’s arrest came just hours after Commissioner Jessica Tisch bashed policies such as “Raise the Age” initiatives which she said made it “basically a consequence-free environment for kids committing crimes.”
“We changed the all the laws as they relate to how we deal with youth in our criminal justice system in 2019, and since then, we have seen an absolute explosion of youth violence, both youth as the perps and youth as the victims,” the top cop said on FOX 5’s Good Day New York Tuesday morning.
“Kids commit crimes against other kids. And it is definitely something, an area where we need to re-look at the laws that were passed in 2019 and consider some major changes.”
“It’s a bigger problem now,” Tisch added. “There are more young people that we are finding with guns as the trigger-pullers.”
The tragic killing also marked the second time in as many days that an innocent New Yorker was slain in random gun violence on the city’s streets.
A trailblazing Harlem bodega owner and community fixture — Excenia Mette, 61 — was also fatally shot in the head less than 24 hours earlier when she ran outside to check on her grandson.
Police believe Ricky Shelby, 23, shot Mette by mistake as he exchanged bullets with Darious Smith, also 23, around 10:20 p.m. April 22 near West 113th Street and Lenox Avenue, according to sources.
Shelby was arraigned on second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, and criminal possession of a weapon charges and ordered held without bail by a Manhattan judge.
Smith, who was arrested nearby with a gunshot wound to his foot, faces an attempted murder charge and also remains in jail without bail.