The friends and family of 16-year-old Christopher Redding are mourning the loss of their beloved friend, brother, and son, who was fatally shot in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx on Wednesday afternoon. Two other teenagers, a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, were also wounded in the shooting, which police are investigating for possible gang connections.
The incident occurred just after 5:00 p.m. on February 11 at the busy intersection of Broadway and West 238th Street, a bustling commercial corridor located directly beneath the elevated 238th Street subway station. The New York Police Department’s 50th Precinct received multiple 911 calls reporting gunfire, and responding officers arrived to find three young victims suffering from gunshot wounds.
Christopher Redding, a resident of the Bronx’s Mount Eden section, sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the back. The 15-year-old boy and 13-year-old girl were both shot in the right leg. All three were rushed by emergency medical services to Saint Barnabas Hospital, where Christopher was pronounced dead. The two younger victims are reported to be in stable condition and are expected to survive.
According to police accounts and witness statements, the shooting was precipitated by a dispute that began inside a local McDonald’s restaurant at 5765 Broadway. Captain Amadeo Oktrova, the commanding officer of the 50th Precinct, detailed that an argument, described by witnesses as potentially stemming from something as minor as spilled food or an issue over ice cream, escalated rapidly. One of the females involved in the initial argument left the restaurant and returned with a group of masked males. The confrontation erupted into a physical fight that spilled out of the restaurant and onto Broadway, where moments later, multiple shots were fired.
A witness told investigators that four or five young people were running west on West 238th Street when the shots rang out, and he saw one victim fall after being shot in the back. The suspects, believed by police and witnesses to also be teenagers, fled on foot toward Bailey Avenue and Sedgwick Avenue.
Investigators determined that the shooters were positioned on an elevated section of West 238th Street between Putnam Avenue and John M. Collins Place/Review Place, firing toward victims near the 238 Corner Store, a deli at Broadway and 238th Street. The distance between these two points is less than 0.1 miles.
Following the shooting, officers from the 50th Precinct, whose stationhouse is located just blocks away, quickly established a perimeter and initiated a search. On Thursday, February 12, the NYPD released photographs and video of four suspects wanted in connection with the fatal shooting, described as three males and one female, all believed to be teenagers.
Christopher Redding was a sophomore at John F. Kennedy High School and is remembered by those who knew him as a tremendously talented athlete and a beloved football teammate. Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, speaking at the crime scene, expressed her heartbreak, saying, “We have too much violence among young adults… A young man lost his life tonight.
A parent, parents were notified that their child did not return home safely as they left earlier this morning.” City Council Member Eric Dinowitz stated, “Guns in the hands of high school students should never be the reality, and we must put an end to this senseless violence.” U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres called the killing “senseless” and urged anyone with information to come forward.
