Bronx gunfire kills teen, 16, ‘young woman with a bright future’; NYPD commissioner blames shooting on ‘brazen criminals’

Gunfire took the life of a 16-year-old girl outside a Bronx high school on Friday when she and two other teens were hit by bullets fired in a dispute between “brazen criminals,” Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said.

The dead teen, Angellyh Yambo, was “a young woman with a bright future,” said Sewell.

None of the victims were the intended targets of the shooting, police said.

The shooting erupted near University Heights High School’s South Bronx Campus on E. 156 St. near St. Ann’s Ave. about 1:40 p.m., police said.

The shooter was standing on the southeast corner of the intersection arguing with someone across the street, police said.

The gunman fired off six shots, striking Yambo, and another 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy walking home from school, police and sources said.

A superintendent at a nearby building heard the gunfire and ran downstairs, where he spotted the wounded teens.

“The kids were coming from South Bronx High School,” said the superintendent, who asked not to be named. “The girl dropped by a red car and was dead. The other girl dropped further up the block. The other boy was hit, but he wasn’t bad.”

The superintendent watched helplessly as the fatally wounded girl’s mother arrived at the scene. Police said Yambo was hit in the chest, and was rushed to Lincoln Hospital but could not be saved.

“The dead girl’s mother…the way she was screaming broke my heart. The first thing you think of is your own kids and you start bawling,” he said as he fought back tears. “It’s crazy out here.”

The other 16-year-old girl was shot in the shin and the 17-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks, said police. They were taken to the same hospital in stable condition.

Yambo attended University Prep High School, a charter school a block away, School Safety sources said.

The other victims attend Mott Haven Village Prep High School, which is one of several schools in the South Bronx Educational Campus around the corner from the shooting, according to the sources.

The slain teen lived with her siblings and mother just blocks from the shooting scene.

“She didn’t deserve to go at all,” said friend Hazel Cheeseboro. “It’s all hitting me right now. She was a fun person to be around. She’s someone you could call if you have problems.”

Cheeseboro, who has known Yambo since kindergarten, said the teen loved music, video games and Beyonce. In recent weeks, she had been applying for summer jobs.

“Her mom is heartbroken,” Cheeseboro said. “She’s trying to hang in there, but she just lost her daughter.”

Police said they were scouring footage in hope of identifying the shooter. There were no immediate arrests.

New York City schools chancellor David Banks described the shooting as a “despicable act of violence.” “As a father of four children, I can only imagine the immense pain these families are going through today,” Banks said in a statement.

Mayor Adams has been informed of the shooting, his spokesman said in a tweet.

Yambo’s death is the latest in a string of stray bullet shootings that have killed or injured children in the city.

Kade Lewin, 12, was killed March 31 when bullets tore through a parked car as he ate dinner in with two relatives on Linden Blvd. and E. 56 St. in East Flatbush. His 20-year-old cousin was wounded in the shooting.

On March 25, a 3-year-old girl was shot in the shoulder as her father picked her up from day care on Riverdale Ave. near Amboy St. in Brownsville.

Just days earlier, a 7-year-old girl was grazed in the stomach as she and her mother stood on the corner of W. 30th St. and Surf Ave. in Coney Island.

On Jan. 29, a Bronx baby girl two days shy of her first birthday was shot in the face as she sat in the backseat of a car parked on Valentine Ave. near E. 198th St. in Bedford Park. The girl astonishingly survived the shot.