A 14-year-old boy was fatally stabbed and a 17-year-old boy was wounded after violence broke out inside a Bronx park on Tuesday evening, according to the police and witnesses.
The younger boy, identified by the police as Angel Mendoza, was stabbed several times and died of his injuries on Tuesday night, the police said. The 17-year-old, whose name has not been released by the police, was found with at least two stab wounds. On Wednesday morning, he was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.
No arrests have been made, the police said. It was not immediately clear what had prompted the fighting or whether the attacks on the two boys were connected.
The violence erupted under a hazy late-summer sky at the Williamsbridge Oval Playground in the Norwood neighborhood. As evening set in, a group consisting mostly of teenagers got into a verbal dispute inside the park, which soon turned bloody, the police said.
According to Betsy Abril, 37, a vendor who was selling summertime treats on the south side of the park on Tuesday evening, a group of teenagers ran over to Angel and converged, attacking him.
Ms. Abril, who was about 200 feet away, said she spun around when she saw the attack and ushered her children, 11 and 3, into her concession cart. “It all happened so fast,” she said in an interview on Wednesday.
Police officers responding to a 911 call about the assault arrived at the small playground just after 7:30 p.m. There, officers discovered the two wounded teenagers — Angel with stab wounds all over his body and the 17-year-old with wounds to his shoulder and abdomen.
The 17-year-old went to Montefiore Medical Center and is expected to survive, the police said. Emergency medical workers took Angel to NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in critical condition. He was pronounced dead later that night.
It was not immediately clear whether Angel and the 17-year-old had known each other.
The police recovered a blade from the park, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the matter.
The fatal stabbing on Tuesday is the latest in a troubling string of killings in New York City this summer that have victimized — and often been perpetrated by — teenagers.
In June, Darrell Harris, 17, was fatally shot during an argument over a water gun fight in another Bronx park during a punishing heat wave. The next day, Jamuri Mezar, 14, was killed after being struck in the head by a bullet inside his Queens apartment. A 15-year-old boy was charged with second-degree manslaughter in connection with his death.
On Wednesday morning, the mood at the Williamsbridge Oval Playground was somber as residents reflected on the violence of the evening before. An array of memorial candles, green, blue and white, flickered beneath a park bench near the site of the stabbing.
Ms. Abril, who has been selling food for 25 years, said Angel was a frequent customer, often buying slushies, sodas and hot dogs. Recently, fights have driven customers away, she said.
“People don’t want to come here no more,” Ms. Abril said.
Yasmin Rosario, 15, a friend of Angel’s who was also at the park on Wednesday, said she had been with him moments before he was attacked. She recalled the incident with emotion in her voice.
After the stabbings, when most of the group’s members had fled, she found Angel lying on the ground.
He turned to her, badly hurt, and asked for help, she said.
Just blocks away on East Mosholu Parkway North, Angel’s father, Miguel Mendoza, 43, stood outside their family’s apartment building, his wife sobbing beside him.
Mr. Mendoza recalled a conversation with his son on Tuesday morning. He had offered to take Angel to the beach for the day, but the boy had declined.
Around 6 p.m., Angel’s mother came home and started preparing him a snack of plantains. He told her he was leaving to see a friend, and soothed her when she worried about his going out at night. It was the last time his family saw him.
“We are destroyed,” Mr. Mendoza said on Wednesday.
Angel’s family moved from the Dominican Republic 10 years ago and has lived in the Norwood neighborhood ever since, Mr. Mendoza said. He described his son as a kind and friendly boy with a passion for reggaeton and rock ’n’ roll.
Williamsbridge Oval Park was a familiar haunt for the family. When Angel was little, Mr. Mendoza would take him to play basketball there.
“We have to prepare for the funeral now,” he said, turning to embrace his wife.
Maia Coleman is a reporter for The Times covering the New York Police Department and criminal justice in the New York area.
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