By Carla Zanoni and Nina Mandell
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A 16-year-old boy was arrested and charged with murder over a bloody machete attack in Washington Heights that left a 17-year-old dead.
Mohamed Jalloh, 17, from the Bronx, was hacked to death early Sunday morning with a machete on 181st Street, police said. He was pronounced dead on arrival at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
Andy Henriquez, 16, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and gang assault on Monday, police said. Henriquez, who lives on St. Nicholas Avenue, was arrested after walking into a hospital to receive treatment for cuts on his hand, police sources said.
It was not immediately clear what gang Henriquez belonged to. The machete is traditionally used by a gang called the Trinitarios, one of the most feared gangs in America that originated in Washington Heights.
"They killed my son!" his mother, Idiatou Jalloh, cried, the Daily News reported. "I had just one son."
Jalloh was with two other friends when he was confronted by Henriquez and a group of approximately eight young men just before 1:30 a.m. Sunday, according to the criminal complaint.
"When the attack was over Mohamed Jalloh was bleeding and appeared to be lifeless lying on the ground," the complaint said.
Jalloh suffered multiple wounds to the body including a blow to the back of the head, a laceration beneath the heart and a broken left arm.
Henriquez said that he was punching Jalloh while another member of the group beat him with a machete, the complaint said.
Police do not know what ignited the brawl.
Charlie Ki, 42, who owns MVP clothing store at 564 West 181 Street where the murder took place, said he didn't know about the stabbing until he arrived to open the store early Sunday morning.
"The only thing I saw was the fire department cleaning up the blood on the street," Ki said.
Jalloh was a Sierra Leone native who moved to the Bronx seven years ago, the paper reported.
"He always had a smile on his face," his friend Souleymane Bangoura, 18, told the News. "Nobody had anything bad to say about him."
