Vigil honors 15-year-old Riley Billingslea after fatal Kingsbridge Heights shooting

Dozens of mourners packed the sidewalk outside 2825 Claflin Ave. in Kingsbridge Heights on Aug. 18, where prayers and chants filled the street in memory of Riley Billingslea, the 15-year-old fatally shot in the building the week before, according to police.

Police said Billingslea was fatally shot in the head on Aug. 12. A 13-year-old boy was also found with a graze wound to the torso and was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition, police said. Officers responding at about 5:23 p.m. found Billingslea already unresponsive, police reported. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities. Police announced that a 16-year-old boy was arrested Aug. 25 and charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in connection to the shooting.

But six days after the incident, there had been no arrests, and the family said it still had no answers about exactly what happened during the incident.

During the evening vigil, family members stood shoulder to shoulder in matching T-shirts printed with Billingslea’s photo, as teenagers alongside them held signs urging an end to gun violence. Billingslea’s mother, Ketrice Riley, addressed the gathering directly, her voice breaking as she pleaded for the shooter to come forward.

She then turned to the teenagers around her with a plea to choose a different path, urging them to put down their guns and treat each other with more care.

Billingslea’s grandmother, Elaine Rogers, stood beside her, calling for the shooter, whom she believed to be a young man, to come forward.

“I would like for the young man to come forward. If it was an accident, however, please explain it,” she said. “And I want to say to the parents, if you’re hiding him, let them go. Let him face justice for my grandson.”

Amid her anger, she stopped to remember Billingslea as a boy who she said was goofy and playful, who loved basketball and PlayStation, and who stopped to help a stranger carry her bags.

“I am truly, truly missing this little boy,” she said. “I loved Riley. He was my love.”

The vigil opened with Bishop Boyde Y. Singeltary, who gathered the crowd in prayer before a word was said about the case itself.

“We ask that you strengthen this family, give them peace,” he said. “Too many children are dying before their time … But his life will not die in vain.”

Alongside members of the Alpha Omega Church of Lord Jesus Christ and the anti-violence groups including Guns Down, Life Up, the gathering drew neighbors, classmates, clergy and activists who chanted “No justice, no peace.”

Cheryl Singeltary, executive pastor of Alpha Omega, followed with a warning aimed at parents.

“We are tired, we’re not getting no answers,” she said. “To the parents out there that know your children is doing evil, wicked things — watch what they’re doing, carrying backpacks with guns in it, hoodies in the summertime.”

The violence claiming other families’ children could reach anyone’s own, she said.

“One day it might be yours. It could be any of us, any God-given day,” she said.

Marisol Miranda, whose 27-year-old son Michael Hernandez Jr. was killed in 2025, is one of several mothers who show up again and again at such events for families they’ve never met.

“It’s important for them to see us right here with them,” she said.

She pushed the night’s demand for accountability further, arguing that the guns themselves need tracing back to their source. Miranda said too many weapons moving through the Bronx started out legal, were later reported lost or stolen, and left no one responsible for how they ended up on streets such as Claflin Avenue.

“These guns are coming from somewhere,” she said. “We need to go back with the serial numbers, the makes, everything and hold those people accountable as well. Somewhere on the line, integrity is lost.”

That same demand arose from Tyreek Goodman, a community organizer and father of a 4-year-old, who said he was done watching families bury children over guns, particularly when they were never even aimed at them — which is what family and friends said they believed happened to Billingslea.

His answer was a call for lawmakers to pass a measure named for Billingslea — the proposed Riley Billingslea Stray Bullet Accountability Act — imposing an enhanced felony charge when reckless gunfire strikes an unintended victim, and an enhanced homicide charge if that victim dies, regardless of at whom the shooter says they were aiming.

“We want accountability,” he said. “And we want it now.”

For Billingslea’s family, however, the most immediate goal remained an answer. As the vigil ended with prayers and chants of “No justice, no peace,” and balloons were released into the summer sky, family members were left confronting a future without their loved one.