Editor’s note: Written by a high school student from the Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative, this article was published inside the July 12-25 print edition of the Norwood News as part of Bronx Youth Heard, a publication of the initiative. The Bronx Youth Journalism Initiative is a program of the Norwood News and Mosholu Preservation Corporation.

The night before Halloween in 2005, Joseph Padro was preparing for a party at his grandmother’s house in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx. He knew something was wrong when his grandmother sat him down on the couch and told him the news: his father had been fatally shot.

Joseph is one of the many teens who have lost a loved one in the Bronx due to gun violence. Even though the city heralds a historic decline in crime since the late 1990s and the early 2000s, the Bronx still remains the most violent borough when it comes to murders, according to New York Police Department statistics.
Many teens like Joseph are living with the consequences.

“I met five of my best friends in high school and all of them have lost their fathers [to violence],” he said.

In the Bronx, violent crime has become the norm, especially for teenagers, he said.

During the late evening hours on Oct. 30, 2005, two teens decided to play a traditional Halloween prank, to egg cars around the neighborhood. When the mess landed on Joseph’s father’s  car, he asked the teens to clean up the damage. An argument broke out after the teens refused to clean the car. Minutes later, one of them pulled out a gun and fatally shot Joseph’s father.

The perpetrators, Jeffery Ivey, who was 17 at the time, and Erik Fuller, who was 15, were both charged as adults and convicted of second degree murder. They were sentenced to five years to life and both are imprisoned upstate.

“Personally I don’t believe that people realize the seriousness of the situation [when it comes to committing violent crime],” Joseph said. “People think it’s just everyday life.”

In the Bronx’s 40th Precinct, which covers the Mott Haven neighborhood where Joseph’s father was killed, petty larceny, misdemeanor assault and robbery remain the three highest crime complaints.

“We need to restrict laws, and send out teams like the operation SNUG programs, to deal with crisis and create peace,” said Greg Faulkner, chief of staff for Bronx City Councilman Fernando Cabrera.

Operation SNUG is a program located in northern Harlem which strives to increase public awareness about the dangers and consequences of both gun violence and gang violence.

The city has tried other methods to stem youth violence.

Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., has pushed a gun buyback program, which allows Bronxites to trade in illegal guns and firearms, no questions asked, in exchange for $200.

Joseph, now 18, thinks that the solution is to have people change their surroundings to a more positive environment that will enable a person to strive for more.
“There is more to it than staying with the wrong crowd,” he said.

Since that Halloween eve in 2005, Joseph has had to wear the permanent mask of manhood.

“I think this happened for me to become who I am now,” he said. “It helped me realize that my father would not want me to give up.”

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.