Accused stray bullet killer of Bronx 12-year-old held without bail as union, Mamdani decry slaying

The Bronx gunman accused of killing 12-year-old Jacob Freytes in a stray bullet shooting outside a bodega was ordered held without bail early Monday, as an NYPD union and Mayor Mamdani lamented the loss of so young a victim, the son of a retired NYPD sergeant.

Authorities said William Ferrer shot three people, killing Jacob Freytes, 12, and wounding two other men, 34 and 25, wounding one in the left foot and the other in the buttocks. Freytes is the son of retired NYPD Sgt. Jesus Freytes, whose union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said on Instagram that suspect be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for “this heinous murder.”

“Losing a child is every parent’s worst nightmare,” the post reads. “On behalf of the men and women of the SBA, our hearts go out to the Freytes family, as we pray for them during this unimaginable and painful tragedy.”

Mayor Mamdani addressed the shooting of the boy in the Bronx at a press availability in East New York Monday.

“We can never accept that a 12-year-old boy sitting on his bicycle outside of a bodega could be killed in our city,” the mayor said.

“And my heart breaks for the family of Jacob Freytes. We are speaking of a young man who should have been able to do what every New Yorker should be able to do, which is to just live their life in the summer of the city.”

Ferrer, 45, was charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, assault and weapons possession.

“We look forward to the case playing out in court,” his lawyer, Ray Gazer, said after the arraignment at Bronx Criminal Court.

The shooting happened 4:55 p.m. Saturday in Mount Eden outside Wanda Supermarket Deli at Eliot Place and Grand Concourse.

Police said a group of men were fighting in the street, with one of them seen on video pulling a gun and firing shots as bystanders scattered in panic.

12-year-old Jacob, who had just come out of the deli and climbed back onto his bike, is seen being struck in the shoulder by a stray bullet, then frantically dashing back into the store for safety, while clutching his shoulder in pain, before collapsing on the floor, the video shows.

Medics rushed Jacob to Lincoln Hospital but he couldn’t be saved.

“He’s a typical 12-year-old boy,” Jacob’s aunt, Bruni Freytes, said Sunday. “And that’s all I can say right now.”

Ferrer was arrested Sunday, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch saying on X that Jacob “was an innocent bystander on his bike when he was taken from his family yesterday in an act of senseless gun violence.”

Ferrer, whose son was in court when he was arraigned, survived a 2006 shooting, police sources said.