Jessica Montilla touches the spot where her son, Juan Ortero was shot dead last night on E117th St, off Madison Ave. (Dan Brinzac)
A 15-year-old boy was fatally shot last night near his Harlem home, police said.
Juan Ortero, 15, was on East 117th Street near Madison Avenue when bullets flew at 9:36 p.m., cops said
Police were called and found Ortero, a 10th grader, had been struck in the chest outside the Peaceful Valley community garden.
He was taken to Metropolitan Hospital where he later died.
Ortero, who loved computers and video games, has a prior arrest for robbery in 2009. He was also the victim of a shooting last year when a gunman blasted him in the hand.
The victim’s father, Juan Anthony Ortero, 35, who lives in Jersey City, said his son was a good kid.
“My son was a good kid,” he said. “He was just a teenager going to school. I don’t know what happened.”
Police have made no arrests in the shooting.
“He was just 15,” Ortero said. “He didn’t deserve this.”
Ortero’s uncle Arturo Vega, 36, who lives across the street from where the shooting took place, said Juan was a “very loving young man.”
“He always wanted to hang with his friends, but that’s what caught up with him,” he said. “Maybe hanging with the wrong people.
“When they’re young, [teens] think they’re invincible. It has been hard on everyone.”
Vega said he heard the shooting from his apartment.
“I heard four or five gunshots. I had just spoken to him before he left the house,” he recalled. “His friend was waiting for him at the corner [of 116th Street].”
Vega said he didn’t think Juan had been hurt.
“I hear gunshots all the time,” he said.
Vega said it wasn’t until a friend called him “that he knew Juan was shot.”
“I came down and I knew he was gone when I saw him,” he added.