A 17-year-old woman is preventing for her life with a stray bullet lodged in her head after being caught up in a mass capturing visiting her previous Bronx neighborhood on the day her mom graduated with a PhD.
Anthonaya Cambell was watching a basketball event at Haffen Park throughout the road from her household’s previous condo in Baychester when the capturing broke out, leaving one man useless, three adults wounded and her clinging to life. Police confirmed Anthonaya was an harmless bystander.
Hours earlier than Anthonaya was shot, her mom Jennifer Talbot was awarded her PhD in psychology at her commencement ceremony in Connecticut, the place mom and daughter moved 5 years in the past.
“My day of celebration became my day of my worst nightmare really quickly,” Talbot stated.
Earlier within the day Anthonaya had known as her mother a number of occasions to ask how her huge day was going. “She felt bad because she didn’t get to come [to graduation]” Talbot stated. “It was the biggest achievement of my life.”
Courtesy of household
Anthonaya Campbell, 17. (Courtesy of household)
Anthonaya Campbell was speculated to return to Connecticut to start out her senior yr of highschool in Hartford Tuesday. As an alternative she is in a hospital mattress at Jacobi Medical Middle.
“Right now it’s touch and go. All we can do is pray,” stated Elizabeth Gardener, Anthonaya’s aunt, who lives throughout the road from the park within the condo the place Anthonaya grew up and was staying for a late-summer trip. “She shouldn’t be like that. She should be heading to school right now.”
Anthonaya had been staying within the Bronx to have a good time her seventeenth birthday on Aug. 8, a birthday she shared with a cousin.
“They played in that park. We’ve been here for years,” Gardener stated. “Her mother moved her to Connecticut to give her a different life. She was visiting. She just celebrated her birthday.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information
Police examine on Sunday after 5 folks had been shot inside Haffen Park within the Bronx on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information)
The basketball event was promoted as a neighborhood giveback with the primary 100 youngsters to point out up promised free back-to-school provides. The capturing sparked off within the park close to Wickham and Burke Aves.
“She was watching the basketball tournament and she just happened to be in the park,” Gardener stated. “They heard the shots and people started to run and the direction she ran, I guess it hit her in the head. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
“The bullet went from the back of her head and it’s lodged behind her eye,” Gardener added. “People know her. She’s very friendly. She’s never had any issues. She’s like a little saint. She could go far and this is just not fair.”
Talbot was attending her post-graduation gala when she obtained the decision that Anthonaya had been shot. She modified out of her robe and ran for her automotive.
“I went straight to the hospital,” Talbot stated. “To see my daughter on a hospital bed with a trach, half her head shaved off, a bullet lodged in her eye with one patch and her head is swollen twice the size …”
“They’re telling me I may have to adjust myself to probably saying goodbyes because she may not be okay,” she added.
“She had two consecutive heart attacks on site. When they brought her there she was unresponsive but they gave her a trach and also put her on life support.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information
Particles is seen on the bleachers of a basketball court docket in Haffen Park within the Bronx on Sunday, the place 5 folks had been shot throughout a basketball event. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information)
Talbot is refusing to surrender on her daughter’s life and thinks it’s a superb signal medical doctors are planning a blood transfusion.
“I guess a plus is that they’re willing to do a blood transfusion so there must be some kind of hope,” she stated.
Police at present have 4 suspects in custody however no fees had been instantly filed Sunday as cops proceed to probe how the capturing unfolded.
Jaceil Banks, 32, was shot within the chest and died at Jacobi Medical Middle, cops stated. He lived close to Yankee Stadium about six miles from the park, based on cops.
A 30-year-old man and a 29-year-old girl, each shot within the again on the park, confirmed up on the similar hospital by non-public means. They had been in steady situation.
A 42-year-old man shot in his proper arm went to Montefiore Medical Middle by non-public means and is predicted to get better.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information
Shell casings are marked on the bottom inside Haffen Park on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information)
The basketball recreation was organized by neighborhood fixture and rapper Ziico Niico and attracted folks from all around the metropolis.
Ziico Niico, whose actual title is Nico Burrell, was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in jail on federal racketeering fees in 2018. It was not instantly clear when he was launched and he couldn’t instantly be reached for remark Sunday.
The Bronx’s forty seventh precinct, which incorporates Haffen Park, had seen a spike in shootings and homicides this yr earlier than the mass capturing — at the same time as these numbers drop within the Bronx general and in the remainder of town.
The precinct had seen eight slayings this yr by way of Aug. 17 in comparison with 4 by the identical level final yr. And 25 folks had been shot by that date, in comparison with 21 throughout the identical timeframe final yr.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information
Police seek for proof contained in the park on Sunday morning. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Day by day Information)
This yr by way of Aug. 17 there have been 64 murders within the Bronx in comparison with 75 by the identical level final yr, a 17% drop. The borough has seen 202 capturing victims this yr by way of that date, down from 268 in the identical timeframe in 2024, a 25% drop.
Citywide, shootings and homicides have fallen to historic lows, with 201 slayings to date this yr by way of Aug. 17, a 20% drop from by this time final yr, and 564 capturing victims in comparison with 700 throughout the identical interval final yr, a 19% drop.
With Rocco Parascandola
Initially Printed: August 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM EDT
