'You don't expect your child to be gone.' Bronx mother remembers 16-year-old girl fatally shot in Morrisania
The mother is now mourning the loss of her only child, who she saw just hours before she died.
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Loved ones gathered for a vigil on Tuesday to remember 16-year-old Evette Jeffrey, who police said was fatally shot on Monday afternoon in Morrisania.
"You don't expect your child to be gone,” said Kristen Abad, Evette’s mother. “It's just really messed up."
The mother is now mourning the loss of her only child, who she saw just hours before she died.
“I told her I love her and to have a good day out with her boyfriend for her anniversary and everything,” said Abad. “That was it. She left and we didn’t hear from her again.”
The mother said Evette made it to her anniversary dinner but not to the movies.
Instead, the victim wound up in the schoolyard at Bronx Latin School, where police said there was a gang-related fist fight.
Cellphone video of the fight showed Evette in a white dress riding by on a scooter.
Police said the girl was an innocent bystander when a 14-year-old boy fired three shots - one of those bullets struck Evette in the head.
“It gets worse every day, every minute,” Abad said. “I’m just thinking about her.”
The mother said she can’t stop thinking about another cellphone video where her daughter is laughing at her grandmother’s birthday party.
“I watch [the video of] her over and over again, all night,” Abad said, who also recalled eating chocolate strawberries with Evette on Mother’s Day.
As she held a balloon release outside of Bronx Latin School Tuesday evening, the mother said she will never forgive her daughter’s killer.
“He hurt my baby,” Abad said. “No, I don’t [forgive him]. I’m sorry. I don’t.”
As of Tuesday, police have not released that 14-year-old boy’s name due to his age.
Police said the boy is charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
