NEW YORK — A teen killer used a gun to settle the score after losing a long-ago fist fight — shooting his rival to death outside a Bronx apartment building as the victim’s younger sister watched in horror, cops and relatives of the victim said Monday.
Christopher Bradley, 18, has been charged with murder for the fatal Saturday afternoon shooting of 22-year-old Miguel Molina Rodriguez outside the Eastchester Gardens complex where both young men lived.
The victim’s 16-year-old sister, Maria Molina Rodriguez, said the killing she witnessed was the final outcome of a petty long-standing beef between her brother and the shooter, who was angry about being beaten fair and square in a fistfight.
On Sunday, she and her brother heard Bradley outside their second-floor window on Adee Ave. calling out for the victim to come outside and face him.
“They had an argument from the window. And the plan was to go downstairs to fight,” Maria explained, adding that her brother had no idea his adversary was armed this time. “[Bradley] was scared to fight because a couple of years ago they had a fight and he lost. And he lost badly.”
Surveillance video recovered by cops shows Rodriguez leaving his building on Adee Ave. with his sister and her boyfriend in tow. As the trio stepped out of the camera’s view, Rodriguez was shot in the chest around 4:40 p.m. police said.
Maria was feet away when Bradley allegedly opened fire.
“[My brother] wasn’t running,” she said. “He was standing right there. My brother was never scared of a gun, never scared of nothing.”
After shots were fired, police say Bradley was seen running into his apartment building in the NYCHA complex. He rode a scooter to his confrontation with the victim, according to cops.
Police got a search warrant that led to Bradley’s arrest the next day on murder, manslaughter and gun possession charges. He was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Sunday evening and ordered held without bail.
“That little girl is in shock,” the victim’s devastated mother, Maricela Rodriguez Molina, 51, said of her daughter who witnessed the shooting. “She can’t sleep. She can’t eat. She’s scared. She’s going through a lot.”
“These guns should never be in the street,” the grieving mom added. “The only one who deserves to have a gun is a cop. ... There’s teenagers out there having guns. Teenagers taking teenagers’ lives for no reason.”
Miguel Molina Rodrigueze learned how to fight with his fists from his dad, a former boxer, relatives said.
“For a slim kid, he knew how to work his hands,” said his aunt, Brenda Oquendo.
Maria Molina said that Bradley likely had the gun because he didn’t want to be shamed in front of his friends. Bradley and her brother’s animosity was largely over minor squabbles, “little petty stuff,” she said.
“It’s a battle of who is bigger than who? Who is badder than who?” Oqueindo said.
Bradley has a criminal record dating back to his early teens. He was charged with attempted murder in 2019 for firing shots at someone and with robbery in 2020, police sources said.
Rodriguez, police said, had prior arrests for marijuana possession, misdemeanor assault and robbery.
His mother described him as a devoted dad to his 2-year-old daughter. Rodriguez worked at a grocery store in the Bronx and was angling to start a construction job through his cousin.
“He was a good kid. And he wasn’t in no gang,” his mom said. “He would help other kids. And I loved him so much. He was always taking care of me, his daughter and his father.”
His cousin, Jose Ramos, a union sheet metal worker, said he was trying to get Rodriguez into the union by setting up a job for him.
In the meantime, Rodriguez was stocking shelves at the store. His heartbroken boss donated $3,000 to a GoFundMe to cover the family’s funeral expenses.
“He was very interested in coming in through the same path that I did,” Ramos said. “He reminded me of me from when I was younger. We both came from very poor backgrounds so he wanted to do better for himself and his family. So he would reach out to me and ask me for advice on what he should do.”
Ramos said he passed along guidance on which programs and OSHA courses to take and how to best support his family.
“No matter the surroundings that you’re in you always have to strive for a better life. And sometimes living in a disadvantaged neighborhood, you have to fight harder,” Ramos said. “That’s the advice I would always give him.”
So far this year, homicides in the 49th Precinct, where Rodriguez was killed, are down 33.3% compared to the same time frame in 2022, according to NYPD stats. Shootings are down by half.
“That’s my little cousin,” Ramos said. “I wish I could have done more. When things like this happen, you always wish you could do more. It’s just heartbreaking.”
In his spare time, Rodriguez loved to play basketball and draw and watch anime. He was one of six siblings.
“My son always would go to my bed because I can’t walk,” his mother said. “I need a walker. I’m very sick so he used to bathe me, he used to take care of me. He was a good son.”
His good deeds are continuing even in death.
“He always said that if something ever happened his eyes could be donated so somebody could see the future because he was so fascinated with anime,” she said. “I donated all his organs. A lot of lives. He always wanted to save other people. That’s how good my son was. I’m shocked.”
Rodriguez was killed the day before Father’s Day and had asked to eat an ice cream cake in the freezer meant to celebrate the occasion Sunday, his mother said.
“I was like ‘No, wait for Father’s Day,’” she said. “He went downstairs and then he was killed. That’s the last words I heard from my son.”
His mom never got to honor him as a father on Sunday.
“His daughter was his life. He used to do stuff with her when she was a baby. He was there when she was born,” she said. “He’s been in his daughter’s life. That was his legacy. His baby, his heart.”
“His daughter couldn’t even spend Father’s Day with him,” his mother said. “We had so many beautiful things to do with his daughter but now he can’t because he isn’t here. He was going to walk her down the aisle. He’s not going to dance for her Sweet Sixteen.”
The mom was visiting her brother in New Jersey when the shooting happened.
“It’s very hard. And now I have to go through this pain as a mother,” she said. “I need a lot of help. I am trying to hold on because I really don’t want to break down.”
As cops investigated the shooting Saturday, shots rang out again less than four hours later and a man was grazed but refused medical attention. Passersby ran for cover.
“There was another shooting,” Rodriguez’s mom said of that incident. “I had to run out there with no clothes, nothing. I feared for my life.”
She has been too afraid to return home.
“I just think we need to get guns off the streets,” Ramos, the victim’s cousin, said. “How does a younger kid get their hands on a gun? It’s heartbreaking because every day we see on the news gun violence, people involved with shootings. It’s like we become immune to it, you change the channel.
“But when it happens to your family, that’s when it hits you.”
