Five young suspects – all but one of them teens – were charged with murder Wednesday in a Labor Day drive-by shooting that killed a man and injured four others outside a known weed spot in the Bronx, cops and sources said.
Heron Martin, 21, Shamir Murray, 19, Kai Oulai, 19, Jose Gomez, 18, and a 16-year-old boy whose name was not released because he is a minor, were each arrested in connection with the deadly shooting of Jamari Henry, 24, outside the Allerton Avenue shop, police said.
All four were also charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment in connection to the burst of gunfire that also left four other men — two 27-year-olds, a 25-year-old, and a 21-year-old — with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The mayhem erupted around 7:30 p.m. when a stolen gray Honda Accord pulled up to the deli, a known weed spot, law enforcement sources said.
Two gunmen stepped out of the car and started opening fire, striking all five victims – Henry fatally, according to the sources.
When nearby cops tried to stop the suspects’ getaway ride, the driver crashed into a Honda Odyssey about a half-mile away at Arnow and Hone avenues, cops and sources said.
One of the teen suspects, Gomez, was critically injured and hospitalized following that crash, according to police.
Sources said at the time that the bloodshed may have been gang-related, but the NYPD was not able to confirm that — or any details on the motive — on Wednesday.
The deadly gun violence was part of days-long shooting surge in the Bronx that ultimately sparked Mayor Eric Adams to deploy 1,000 more cops to the borough’s violent hotspots over the weekend.
Another fatal Bronx shooting last week also saw a teen shooter in cuffs, cops said.
A 15-year-old boy with a rap sheet was arrested — while still wearing an ankle monitor — in the Aug. 26 shooting death of Kelvin Mosquea during an apparent robbery gone wrong outside NYCHA’s Sack Wern Houses, authorities and sources said.
“We’re seeing we’re seeing shooters becoming younger and younger,” Mayor Eric Adams said on FOX 5’s Good Day New York Wednesday morning. “We’re seeing the direct results of some of the laws that we have passed – some of the actions, both in Albany and in the City Council.”
In another shooting on Aug. 23, a gun battle during a basketball tournament in Haffen Park killed a 32-year-old man, identified as Jaceil Banks, injured three others and left an innocent 17-year-old girl fighting for her life after a stray bullet ripped through her face.
A quartet of baby-faced suspects, ages 16, 17, 20 and 25, were arrested in the heedless gunplay, which was being eyed as potentially gang-related, cops and sources said.
“We’re going after guns in the Bronx,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on FOX 5. “We’re going after gangs in the Bronx, because we know that a lot of this violence there is gang-related, and we are putting cops on foot posts, in big numbers, on the streets and at the times where we know crime historically has occurred. There is a plan and it is being executed.”
Meanwhile, NYPD stats show that shooting incidents fell to 27 in the Bronx last month compared to 34 in August 2024, and the number of shooting victims dipped from 49 to 44 this year over the same span.
Over the first eight months of the year, shooting incidents in the northernmost borough were at 186 with 228 victims, down from 224 and 285, respectively, over the same period in 2024.
