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Mayor Zohran Mamdani is too busy obsessing over his image to help prevent tragedies such as the fatal shooting of an ex-Finest’s innocent 12-year-old as he walked to a bodega, a prominent activist charged Sunday.
Fernando Mateo, founder of United Bodega Owners of America, slammed the lefty mayor for watching a FIFA World Cup game with inmates at Rikers Island in a publicity stunt earlier this month while rampant gunplay continues to plague the city’s streets — and claimed the life of beloved young Jacob Freytes on Saturday.
“Where is Mamdani?” Mateo seethed at outside the Mount Eden bodega where the boy was shot.
“If you’re in jail, you’re in jail for a reason! Teach [inmates] a skill if you want. But don’t go out there watching a freaking FIFA game! And enjoying dinner with people that are in jail because they committed a crime!”
The Big Apple activist also ripped Hizzoner and Gov. Kathy Hochul generally over New York’s notorious soft-on-crime policies.
“We don’t need to hear stats! ‘We have the lowest gun violence in history!’ We don’t want to hear that s–t! We’re tired of hearing that s–t! Because it’s bulls–t!
“Jacob’s parents are mourning their little boys death today. This kid went into the bodega to buy a ball!”
Miledy Rosario, a Bronx mother of four, including a 12-year-old friend of Jacob’s, separately said Hizzoner talks a good game about battling violence but in reality has failed her neighborhood miserably.
“I feel that the mayor that’s celebrating in the parade right now should take better care of this block, because there’s a lot of gang members,” Rosario said, referring to Mamdani walking in Sunday’s local Dominican parade.
“This is not the first time this thing happened here,” said Rosario — who gifted Jacob her daughter’s hand-me-down bike Friday, the day before he died.
“This has been happening a lot of times,” she said of Sunday’s tragic shooting. “[Mamdani] should know that there is a lot of gangs on that block there, and they had to be cleaned up.
“Before, there was police on that corner. But yesterday, there was no one there,” she said. “He’s talking about stopping violence. But it is still continuing. And so if they don’t clean that block there, we’re gonna continue to see the same thing.”
Mateo said, “We know what the remedy is because we’ve lived through this before.
“The remedy is very simple: The governor, the mayor, instead of having a day out watching a FIFA game at Rikers with criminals, be advocating for victims.
“Protect the victims and their families.”
The tragic youngster was at the Wanda Deli Grocery at Elliott Place near the Grand Concourse shortly before 5 p.m. Saturday to buy a ball before shots rang out oputside as part of a dispute between six people, law-enforcement sources said.
Jacob had been getting back on his bike to ride home when the gunfire erupted — and was seen on dramatic security video obtained by The Post then stumbling back into the store clutching his chest moments later before he fatally collapsed.
His father is a retired NYPD sergeant who used to work in the same precinct where his son was killed.
Mateo said the bodega owners group is offering a $5,000 reward for the killers.
“This is directed to the governor and the mayor of this city,” he said. “Let’s get tough on crime. Let’s stop giving a pass.
Despite the tragic shooting, NYPD stats show that shootings and murders in the five boroughs at historic lows — but Mateo said too many neighborhoods are still plagued.
“That’s not the right message to send and that’s why there are so many guns on our streets today,’’ he said.
“The guns are out there on the streets today because nothing is being done when these people get caught with the guns, OK?!”
Mamdani, asked about the tragedy at an unrelated event Sunday, said, “It is a top priority for us, to get more guns off of our streets.”
He praised the NYPD for its “incredible work over these past six months” confiscating illegal guns but added, “That work can never stop, that work can never be over.
“Because our hearts are broken right now. We’re only a few blocks from where Jacob Freytas was killed, a 12-year-old was killed, sitting on a bike outside a bodega. And that is unacceptable in this city,” he said.
Mamdani wrote in a post on X on Saturday, “My heart breaks for his family, friends and all those who loved him. Their loss is unimaginable.
“I’m grateful for the hospital staff, and the NYPD for their work to find those responsible for this heinous act. Our children should be able to ride their bikes on a nice summer day in their neighborhood without fear of being shot. We cannot accept this violence as normal.”
Neither his office nor Hochul’s responded to Post requests for comment Sunday.
-Additional reporting by Carl Campanile
Source: New York Post
