The teen fatally shot outside a Bronx afterparty over the weekend was a “family boy” and future Navy recruit with a “bright future,” his grief-stricken relatives told The Post as they desperately pleaded for justice in the unsolved slaying.
Juan Jose Pena, 18, was gunned down around 1:25 a.m. Sunday outside the festivities on Park Avenue near East 176th Street in the Tremont neighborhood, law enforcement sources said.
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 live. They killed him and they also killed me alive.”
Days after the family was devastated with the news of Juan’s death, his mother’s living room turned into a tribute for her slain son – with photos of the teen, white roses and other flowers and assorted candles decorating a table.
The second-oldest of four children, Juan was born in the Dominican Republic, according to his aunt, Shery Olivo, 35, a Dominican author.
He had two sisters and one brother, and lived with his stay-at-home mother.
“He was a person full of love,” Olivo said. “He was a family boy. He always helped out in the house. For holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas – he was the one in the kitchen helping to prepare the family dinner, the turkey, the pig, diced up the potatoes.”
Juan was never a troublemaker and didn’t have any enemies, Olivo added.
“He had never been in trouble, doesn’t have any criminal history, never been stopped by the cops, nothing,” Olivo said. “He always looked nice and clean. He loved to look nice and bougie . . . always dressed to impress.”
Juan “loved culinary arts,” and just three days before his tragic death, he visited his aunt – who lives on a different floor of the same building – to bring her food.
Olivo recalled her nephew telling her, “Tia, I’m good, I’m going into the Navy, I’m happy. I just took an exam.”
She 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.”
Juan had hoped his career with the Navy would help him provide a future for his family and ultimately buy his mom a house, his aunt said.
“He was a hero here to us,” Olivo said. “Imagine to serve this country… that’s one boy less [in] our military. Why? Because of [the] crime that’s happening. That’s not fair.”
“These public officials, they need to realize that the crimes are taking away tomorrow’s future,” she added. “It’s so sad at 18 years old. Your life begins when you are 18. They took his life away.”
No arrests had been made in connection to the teen’s murder by Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Oivo urged the person responsible for the deadly shooting to “be a man” and surrender to cops.
“The person who did this must pay with all the weight of the law. They are a danger to these streets.”
