Teen's shooting death marks the fifth deadly shooting involving a teenager in less than a week in NYC

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NEW YORK CITY, NY - Police are actively investigating an incident that left an 18-year-old man dead after being shot on the Bronx on Monday, October 28th. According to ABC7, this incident marks the fifth teen to fall victim to gun violence in New York City is less than a week.

The shooting happened just after 7:00 p.m. at Rev James A. Polite Avenue in the Longwood section of the Bronx. The victim, identified as 18-year-old Joshua Sparrow, was shot in the head and torso. He as taken to Lincoln Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Monday night's deadly shooting in the Bronx marks the fifth teen killed across the five boroughs in less than one week.

The nightly string of killings began on Thursday, October 24th, in Harlem, when 16-year-old Clarence Jones was gunned down on West 124th Street. The next night, Friday, October 25th, 15-year-old Malachi Deberry was shot and killed just steps away from his home in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Over the weekend, 16-year-old Taearion Mungo was shot and killed at a housing project in Fort Greene on Saturday, October 26th, and 15-year-old Tristan Sanders was gunned down in Crown Heights on Sunday, October 27th.

As of this writing, no arrests have been made in any of the shootings and the investigations remain ongoing. In a separate incident, a brutal crew of teenage Tren de Aragua (TdA) illegal immigrant gang members are pulling off armed robberies at a city-funded Manhattan shelter. According to the New York Post, nearly two dozen young kids, some as young as 11-years-old, are part of the dangerous Venezuelan gang that is taking over parts of New York City and other parts of the country.

Some of them are not getting caught at all and some are managing to stay out of jail after being caught because of their ages and the state's lenient criminal justice laws, as noted by Detective Bureau Assistant Chief Jason Savino. He said in a statement, "You have individuals that are brazen. We know they have access to guns, evident by the fact that they've done gunpoint robberies and they've been brazen enough to showcase pistols in and around their social media."

He added, "This is the first formulated group that we found where this group of about 20 individuals that, in pack format, hang out every day, they post on social media, they boast about their crew. You see little pockets in and around Times Square and in around the shelters. But as far as a true threshold, it's been limited to shelters."

The crew of about 21 gang members calls themselves "Los Diablos de la 42," which is Spanish for "Little Devils from 42nd Street," and they have been busted for 50 separate incidents. However, according to Savino, not a single one is behind bars for their crimes. He said, "They committed the robberies [in] all the sexy places, in and around Central Park, in and around Times Square, in and around transit. And targeting tourists."

The Diablos crew grew out of the Roosevelt Hotel and is guided by an older gang member, who recruits the youngsters to pull off robberies before bringing back the loot, which can sometimes be done as part of an initiation into the gang. Recruiters also pick young kids, who are unlikely to be charged as adults, to join their ranks. 

Back in August, police suspected that an 11-year-old accused subway mugger from Venezuela who was living at the Roosevelt was tied to TdA. Once in custody, the boy was given a juvenile card and released. In addition to the young age of some of the gang members, the state's criminal justice reforms prohibit bail for misdemeanors and most felonies, which means TdA suspects are often released. Savino said, "It's a product of bail reform. We tried to try some in criminal court, somewhat unsuccessfully."
 
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