Bronx teen charged with murdering pal while playing with gun

A Bronx teen, 14, has been arrested for murder for the shooting of a pal, also 14, while they played around with a gun in the lobby of a Bronx apartment building, police said Sunday.

The suspect, whose name was not released by the NYPD because of his age, was nabbed Friday night for allegedly killing Jacob Borbon.

Investigators are still trying to determine if the shooting was accidental.

“I haven’t been OK,” Jacob’s devastated mother said on Sunday, breaking into tears. “[Jacob] was a good kid. We were about to leave out of here. We was about to move upstate. We got a house. We was going to get my baby out the ’hood and this happens.”

Police charged the boy with two different counts of murder — one covering intentional homicide, the other depraved indifference — as well as manslaughter. Prosecutors in the Bronx will determine how to proceed with his case, police sources said.

Sources familiar with the case said the teen told investigators the gun went off in Jacob’s hands but physical evidence from the scene suggests otherwise.

The teen was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Saturday and ordered held without bail.

Jacob was hanging out with teen friends in the lobby of a building on E. 194th St. near Briggs Ave. in Fordham Heights when the gun went off, likely accidentally, at about 1:05 a.m. Thursday, cops said.

Police officers posted nearby heard the shot and found Jacob stumbling out of the building, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.

Officers found four beach chairs in the lobby surrounded by McDonald’s food and drinks, Essig said. The surveillance camera in the lobby was covered with black spray paint and so didn’t capture anything, but a camera outside caught three young man fleeing, one of them holding a gun, according to Essig.

Jacob, who lived in Allerton about 2 miles from where he was shot, was wounded in the chest. Medics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.