A 16-year-old boy was arrested and charged with murder in the deadly shooting of a 23-year-old woman — whose brother appeared to be the intended target — at a Bronx playground last week, cops and sources said.
The boy was picked up by the NYPD Warrants unit at a Tuesday parole hearing in connection with the slaying of Reyna Caceres, who was shot in the left eye just after midnight May 28 on Aqueduct Avenue near West 181st Street in University Heights, according to police.
The teen, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was also charged with aggravated manslaughter, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment, cops said.
Caceres appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time while the suspect gunned for her brother, who is a person of interest in three other shootings, law enforcement sources said.
Investigators are also probing whether the violence was gang-fueled, according to the sources.
The young woman, who lived about a half-mile from the scene, was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition, but she could not be saved, police said.
Her loved ones remembered her as “a smart, funny and kind person” who took her big sister role seriously, according to a GoFundMe page launched to help cover her funeral costs.
“Reyna was an incredible older sister to her three younger siblings,” the fundraising page said. “There is nothing in the world she would not do for them. She loved them more than anything in the world.”
One other person is being sought in connection to the violence. It’s unclear which suspect discharged the deadly round, the sources said.
The cuffed teen was previously arrested in September for allegedly firing a gun down a Bronx street, facing a charge of reckless endangerment, according to the sources.
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