A 17-year-old boy was busted in connection to the Bronx murder of another teen who was “full of life” and had high hopes of joining the Navy, cops said Friday.
The younger teen was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection to the Feb. 2 early-morning murder of Juan J. Pena, 18, on Park Avenue near East 176th Street in the Tremont neighborhood, cops said.
The teen was busted on Feb. 18 and charged as an adult, though his case is proceeding in the youth part of Bronx Supreme Criminal Court.
A judge granted him supervised release and ordered him to use an electronic monitoring device as the investigation unfolds, prosecutors said.
“We asked for the defendant to be placed on supervised release with electronic monitoring pending further investigation and gathering more evidence,” a spokeswoman for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Others may have been involved in the slaying, sources said. The NYPD initially released photos of three young men in connection to the deadly shooting.
Investigators initially believed the shooting stemmed from a spat outside an afterparty, sources said at the time.
A black sedan pulled up to the venue, where someone inside exchanged words with the victim before opening fire, according to the sources.
Juan – who was rushed to a local hospital only to succumb to his injuries – graduated from the Bronx Leadership Academy High School last summer and was planning to join the Navy, according to his family.
“I want justice for my son,” the slain teen’s mother, Anayeli Pena, told The Post in Spanish Tuesday.
“They didn’t kill a dog, they killed a son with a future, with a bright future. I don’t want his death to go unpunished.”
“Justice is the only thing I can ask for,” she added. “What else can I ask for? I want them to pay for what they did to my son. They didn’t kill a dog. They killed a young boy full of life. They killed him, and they also killed me alive.”
Juan had two sisters and one brother and lived with his stay-at-home mother.
He was not a troublemaker and didn’t have any enemies, according to his aunt, Shery Olivo, 35, a Dominican author.
Olivo recalled the moment that her nephew visited her just three days before his tragic death.
She recalled her nephew telling her, “Tia, I’m good, I’m going into the Navy, I’m happy. I just took an exam.”
Olivo said she told him, “That’s the best thing you could do and I am proud of you and I know you are going to be a great soldier and a hero.”
