Zahir Davis was arrested on Friday night in connection with the killing of Jaden Pierre, 15, who was shot in broad daylight during a fight in South Jamaica.
The police on Friday arrested a man in connection with the murder of a 15-year-old boy who was shot in broad daylight in a Queens park earlier this month.
The man, Zahir Davis, 18, was taken into custody just before 9:30 p.m. on Friday and charged with killing Jaden Pierre, a teenager who was beaten and shot during a fight in Roy Wilkins Park in South Jamaica on April 16. Mr. Davis was arraigned on Saturday morning in Queens Criminal Court on charges of second-degree murder, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon. He was ordered held without bail. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
The police had been seeking Mr. Davis since last week, but he had fled New York City for the island nation of Jamaica just after the shooting, evading arrest, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement on Saturday.
Mr. Davis returned to New York City on Friday and was apprehended by New York Police Department detectives on the U.S. Marshals' local fugitive task force shortly after landing at an airport, Ms. Tisch said.
Mr. Davis's arrest was a break in a case that has haunted South Jamaica -- and the city -- for nearly a week.
In her post announcing Mr. Davis's arrest on Saturday, Ms. Tisch called the killing a "senseless murder."
Jaden's death has been a tension point in the city since videos of his killing, and the fight that preceded it, surfaced online. The encounter, which was captured by at least two bystanders who were present at the park that evening, shows several young people repeatedly punching Jaden near the park's basketball courts as a large group of teenage onlookers shout with excitement.
In one video, shared on social media by former Mayor Eric Adams, at least three young people can be seen punching Jaden, who falls to the ground at least once. In another, a young man pulls out what looks to be a gun and points it directly at Jaden before releasing the trigger and leaving him crumpled on the ground.
It remained unclear on Saturday what had exactly led to the fight or why it had escalated. But according to Melinda Katz, the Queens district attorney, the episode began when a large group of teenagers gathered for a water fight that had been publicized on social media.
From there, a group of boys attacked Jaden, who was unarmed, Ms. Katz said, and Mr. Davis approached him, pulled a silver gun from his bag and shot him without provocation in the upper chest.
On Saturday, Mr. Davis was also arraigned on charges of harassment and aggravated harassment stemming from a separate episode just days before the fight, in which he threatened to shoot his ex-girlfriend with whom he shares a child.
The videos, and their swift dissemination online, have prompted concern from many lawmakers, who not only condemned the incursion of teen violence into a city park but also questioned the callousness of those who filmed the interaction.
"Why was his life not worth putting the phone down?" Jumaane Williams, the city's public advocate, asked at a vigil for Jaden on Monday evening, which drew hundreds of mourners and an array of elected officials.
"His life was worth saving," Mr. Williams said. "His life was worth protecting."
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who did not attend the vigil, said on Monday during a discussion hosted by WNYC that Jaden’s young age had added to the tragedy of the killing.
“We extend not only our condolences to the family but, frankly, a necessity of recommitting ourselves to ending the scourge of gun violence in this city,” Mr. Mamdani said.
The killing arrives as the Police Department has struggled to address a recent rise in shootings involving teenagers, even as gun violence and other major crimes in the city have declined. In 2025, 14 percent of all shooting victims in New York City, and 18 percent of perpetrators, were under the age of 18. Both statistics represent the highest share of youth shootings since the Police Department began tracking such data in 2018.
The Department has rolled out a series of initiatives to address the rise, including deploying more school safety agents in and around schools and policing areas where teenagers are most at risk, like bus stops and commuter corridors. Since making the changes last September, the Police Department said that shootings involving youth have declined in those zones while officers have been deployed.
Still, a spate of recent killings involving teenagers this year has rattled the city.
On Friday, hours before Mr. Davis was arrested, a 16-year-old boy, Marquise Byfield was shot at around 4 p.m. in East New York, the police said.
Officers responding to a 911 call arrived to find the boy in critical condition with gunshot wounds in his torso and near his groin. He was pronounced dead by doctors at a nearby hospital later that day. On Saturday, the police said they had made no arrests in that case.