A Bronx car meet-up spiraled into gunfire over the weekend, leaving an 18-year-old dead and three others wounded — including a woman who was delivering slushies — authorities and law-enforcement sources said.
Police identified the slain teen as Werling Mendez, who was shot in the head around 5:40 a.m. Sunday on East 233rd Street near Boston Road in Eastchester. The gathering was tied to a social-media-driven street showdown trend, cops said.
Investigators recovered more than 60 shell casings at the scene, sources said, underscoring the scale of the violence that erupted during the meet-up.
Mendez, who lived roughly 3 miles away in Olinville, was taken to BronxCare Health System, where he died from his injuries, police said Monday.
Three other people were hit by bullets, including a 22-year-old man shot in the chest and two women, ages 20 and 25, who were each struck in the foot, according to authorities and sources.
The 25-year-old woman was making a slushie delivery for a local business when she was wounded, law-enforcement sources said.
All three surviving victims were taken to hospitals and listed in stable condition, police said.
No arrests had been made as of Monday, and police had not released any suspect description. Investigators were still working to determine who, if anyone, was the intended target of the shooting.
A 37-year-old woman was also robbed of her cell phone and a diamond chain during the fracas, the sources said.
She was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was in stable condition, according to authorities.
The violent gathering happened about four months after reckless drivers turned a Queens street into a danger zone in mid-April.
Footage from that car meet-up – at Eliot Avenue and 69th Street along the Maspeth-Middle Village border – shows a brazen motorist apparently waving a Palestinian flag as he burned rubber.
The driver narrowly missed those standing nearby while the car made donuts around a ring of fire in the middle of the street.
Two men also jumped on the hood of a marked department vehicle during the mayhem, cracking its windshield and causing other damage, before speeding off in a black Nissan, police said at the time.
Two people were arrested in connection to that incident – with both since released in court on non-bail-eligible charges.
At the time, the NYPD said the mayhem won’t stop unless the perpetrators face significant consequences.
“These car meets will not go away unless there are real repercussions in the criminal justice system,” a department rep said in a statement. “The NYPD will continue to dedicate significant resources to stop these dangerous and reckless events.”
