The Bronx DA's office announced that 38 reputed Bloods gang members and associates were indicted for an array of charges including attempted murder and narcotics trafficking. And five of the defendants were involved in the stray bullet shooting of a 15-year-old girl who struck in the head while walking home from school. more ›

A Bronx teen being arraigned in connection with the shooting of 15-year-old Vada Vasquez doesn't seem too penitent. Clivie Smith, one of the five thugs charged with the November shooting, plead not guilty. After the proceeding, the 19-year-old was being escorted from the courtroom when he spotted two of his friends. According to the New York Post he shouted "What up, man?" Then, pretending to be scared, he cried out "Daddy!" breaking the tension in the room, as onlookers erupted in laughter. It may not help his case, but the alleged ringleader of the incident sure likes to talk. Previously Smith told the Post the cops were "crooked, crooked, crooked." He added that being held at Rikers is "like having the worst migraine you can ever have." more ›

A plutocrat, a pagan, and an atheist walk into a diner... Okay, it was a library, and it wasn't exactly a joke: On New Year's Eve Mayor Bloomberg held his annual interfaith breakfast at the NYPL and, for the first time, invited a group of six atheists to partake in the pancakes. “I also want to welcome, for the first time, those who don’t profess a faith but who do love our city,” the mayor said this morning. The controversial move was inspired by President Obama, who gave a shout-out to non-believers in his inauguration speech. The atheists elicited interesting responses from all across the religious spectrum, according to City Room. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg invited Vada Vasquez, who was shot in the head by a stray bullet in November and made a miraculous recovery, to his annual interfaith breakfast where he asked religious leaders to fight the spread of illegal guns. The Daily News reports that the Mayor implored, "We still have more to do. There is some other young person out there - or older person - who's sitting there just minding their own business, who could be the next Vada Vasquez, or worse. And we don't want that to happen." more ›

During her first interview since taking a stray bullet to the skull in November, 16-year-old Vada Vasquez called attention to the paramedics who saved her life, telling the Daily News she was "just really happy" someone was holding her hand as she was lying on the sidewalk with blood pouring out of her head. That someone was paramedic Pierre Ramos, and the News tracked him down yesterday for an interview made even more heartwarming in light of this week's other story, of EMTs who allegedly turned their back on a dying woman. more ›

The Bronx teen who was caught her in the crossfire of a gang shooting is on the mend and home for Christmas, after spending over a month in the hospital. 16-year-old Vada Vasquez was waiting for a bus with a friend on November 16th when she got caught in the line of fire between a baby-faced shooter and his intended target. The bullet entered her brain and she was kept in medically-induced coma for weeks. But now Vasquez is on the mend, and yesterday she spoke for the first time about the shooting: more ›

In the aftermath of three November shootings in which innocent Bronx teens were gunned down, friends of one of the victims are urging witnesses to come forward. Following the death of 17-year-old Issi Ariel Dominguez — who cops believe was not the intended target when a gunman fired into a crowd after a party this weekend — friend Ruthie Gomez told NY1: "You better snitch, we are going to find him. We are going to find whoever did it, I don't care." more ›

The family of Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old Bronx girl who took a stray bullet to the skull last Monday, declined their usual Thanksgiving feast this year, postponing it until the teen can eat again. But the five young men accused of involvement in the shooting were given a seemingly generous Thanksgiving meal in jail yesterday. Dinner included turkey with dressing, yams, steamed greens and carrot cake! more ›

The family of the 15-year-old girl who took a stray bullet to the skull last Monday has something incredible to be thankful for today: doctors expect the teen to make a full recovery. After performing brain surgery to remove the bullet from Vada Vasquez's skull, doctors put her in medically-induced coma and cautioned relatives that she would most likely suffer some degree of brain damage. But now surgeon Narayan Sundaresan believes that although the bullet damaged her left temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for speech, she still "can make a full recovery." more ›

The 15-year-old Bronx girl who was put in a medically-induced coma after taking a stray bullet to the skull has spoken for the first time since the incident, eight days ago. A source tells the Daily News that Vada Vasquez's first word was "Mom." Her condition has been upgraded to stable and a spokeswoman at Lincoln Hospital says, "She's improving. She's in stable condition and recognizes family members." more ›

The mother of the 16-year-old Bronx boy accused of shooting a rival gang member and an innocent young bystander gave her first interview with the press yesterday. In a teary sit-down with the Post, Zelita Mighty explained that she tried to keep her son, Carvett Gentles, away from the gang culture that grips the area around East 169th Street and Boston Road—where her own father was shot nine times in the back when she was a teen. But at some point over the summer, she claims "Zico" [Carvett's nickname] went from being an engaged student who would "proudly bring home attendance and science awards" to a distant young man mixing with his older cousins and uncle—members of the Gorilla Stone Blood gang. more ›

Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old Bronx student who was shot in the head Monday afternoon by suspects targeting someone else, was taken off her ventilator and remains in critical condition. The intended target spoke to the Daily News, "I'm so sad about what happened to her. I feel terrible. She's innocent, like I'm innocent." more ›

Though prosecutors say he gave a written and videotaped confession, the 16-year-old Bronx boy accused of shooting two teens on a crowded street Monday afternoon pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday. As his mother wept in the third row of the courtroom, Carvett Gentles and four other young men—all members of the "Gorilla Stone Blood" gang—were arraigned and sent to Rikers Island without bail. Gentles lawyer maintained his client's innocence, insisting, "He does well in school, he comes from a nice family." But some members of this "nice family" happen to be the older gang members who allegedly handed Gentles the gun and told him to shoot—because he was the only one without an arrest record. more ›

A 16-year-old boy has confessed to the Monday afternoon shooting that left a Bronx girl in a medically-induced coma. Carvett Gentles, a sophomore at Bronx Leadership Academy who rarely attended class, had no criminal record before this week, and police believe that's why the .40-caliber pistol used in the shooting was passed to him, in a street version of "hot potato." The four other young men who were with him Monday afternoon all have extensive arrest records, and those boys—also members of a Bloods gang spin-off called "Gorilla Stone Blood"—passed the gun around until it ended up in Gentles's hands. more ›

Police have arrested five young men allegedly involved in the altercation that led to the shooting of innocent bystander Vada Vasquez, a 15-year-old Bronx girl who was chatting with a friend after school Monday afternoon when a stray bullet struck her in the head, shattering inside her skull. She is currently in critical condition and on a ventilator. The bullets were directed at Tyrone Creighton, 19, who was hit in the back as he fled five men who had confronted him outside a bodega near Bronx Latin School. Police believe revenge was the motive. more ›

A 15-year-old Bronx teen, not too far from her school in the Morrisania section, was shot in the head by a stray bullet yesterday afternoon. She had apparently walked into a dispute between two men—the Daily News reports, "As Vada Vasquez underwent emergency brain surgery, cops hunted for a bicycle-riding gunman who fired wildly at a man suspected of being a snitch." The apparent target of the gunfire, a 19-year-old man, was also shot in the abdomen and leg and taken to a hospital. more ›