A teen was fatally shot and three others wounded when a Bronx car meet-up spiraled into gunfire early Sunday, police said.
Werling Mendez, 18, died from a bullet to the head around 5:40 a.m. On East 233rd Street near Boston Road in Eastchester, cops said Monday. The gathering was part of a social-media-fueled street-showdown trend that has drawn increasing scrutiny from law enforcement.
More than 60 shell casings were recovered at the scene, according to sources.
Mendez, who lived about 3 miles away in Olinville, was rushed to BronxCare Health System, where he succumbed to his injuries.
A 22-year-old man also was shot in the chest, and two women — ages 20 and 25 — were each struck in the foot, according to authorities and sources. The older woman was delivering slushies for a local business when she was caught in the gunfire. Those victims were hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
No arrests had been made by Monday, and no suspect information was available. It also remains unclear who was targeted in 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 warned that such events would continue without stiffer penalties.
“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.”