A teenager has been charged over the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old girl who was walking home from school when she was hit by a stray bullet during a street dispute in New York City.

New York Police Department officials announced the arrest on Saturday of Jeremiah Ryan, 17, on charges of murder, attempted murder and criminal possession of a weapon. 

The shooting in the Bronx area of the city was the latest episode of headline-grabbing violence amid a surge in crime during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Police identified the girl killed in the shooting as Angellyh Yambo. 

Another 16-year-old girl was hit in the leg, and a 17-year-old boy was wounded in the buttocks. Both are expected to survive.

Police had said the gunfire appeared to start after Ryan and another person were gesturing at each other across an intersection. 

The children who were struck were walking home from school, police said.

Police were investigating whether the shooting suspect, who had no criminal record, was using a so-called ‘ghost gun’ – a homemade firearm that can be built with parts bought online and lack serial numbers normally used to trace them. They said a total of six rounds were fired.

“We have two families that are completely destroyed right now – our victim’s family and our shooter’s family,” Deputy Police Chief Timothy McCormack said. 

Mayor Eric Adams has made fighting crime a priority since taking office on January 1. 

Murders are down slightly from this time last year, but gun violence overall remains at levels not seen in a decade.

New York City saw shootings drop to modern-era lows from 2012 to 2019, but that progress was partly erased during the pandemic and social unrest of the past two years. 

Violence still remains at levels far below the city’s nadir in the 1990s or even in the decade after the September 11 terror attacks.