A 17-year-old boy believed to be hiding out in the Dominican Republic is the alleged gunman responsible for the tragic stray-bullet killing of an innocent Manhattan mother last month, police officials said Thursday.
Manuel Ramos, 17, is being sought in the Dec. 26 shooting that left 64-year-old mom of three Valeria Ortega dead, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig told reporters.
Ortega, also a grandmother of three, was walking to a supermarket near her Inwood home with her son on the day after Christmas when she was struck in the head by a stray bullet.
Police say Ramos was riding in a car with two other people on their way to buy marijuana when he fired out the window at a scooter he believed was following him — and hit Ortega instead.
Detectives tracked the vehicle down and were able to get Ramos’ name from the other two who were inside the car, Essig said.
“The two in the front said they’re just going to buy marijuana at 207th Street,” Essig said. “As they’re driving there a scooter follows them. Unbeknownst to them, Manuel has a gun, turns around, fires the gun out the window, strikes our 64-year-old.”
Manuel Ramos, 17, has been identified as the alleged gunman who killed 64-year-old mother Valeria Ortega in Manhattan last month. Facebook/Valerie OrtegaPolice discovered Ramos left for the Dominican Republic on Jan. 1 and are currently trying to track him down in the Caribbean county to have him extradited.
Ramos has one prior arrest from Dec. 6 for criminal possession of stolen property.
He flew to the Dominican Republic with no return ticket.
Ortega — a resident of Inwood for the last three decades, who also leaves behind her 101-year-old mom — was remembered by her grieving husband as “generous and kind” to a fault.
“[She was] buenisima — a very good woman, a doting mother,” Vincente Garcia told ABC-7 Eyewitness News shortly after her death.
“[She was] generous and kind almost too much for her own good.”
Heartbreaking photos on her Facebook page showed Ortega, who had two adult daughters in addition to a son in his late 20s, enjoying vacations and doting on her family.
Her last public post in September celebrated her mother’s 101st birthday.
“Congratulations on your birthday mom,” Ortega wrote alongside a photo of her elderly mother posing with pink balloons.
