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New York City Police Department (NYPD) detectives arrested Zahir Davis, 18, on Friday night following an urgent search for the person who gunned down a child at a Queens playground earlier this month, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced in a Saturday X post.

Davis is charged with murder in connection with the April 16 killing of 15-year-old Jaden Pierre, Tisch wrote.

Officials said Davis fled to Jamaica after Pierre was shot, but returned to New York on Friday where he was immediately arrested by NYPD detectives assigned to the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force.

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Authorities said Pierre was shot at 6:15 p.m. on April 16 near Merrick and Baisley boulevards in Queens. The next day, the NYPD released photos of a suspect wanted in connection with the killing.

Social media video of the incident showed a male repeatedly striking a young boy with his hands before opening fire toward the child. A crowd that had formed around the pair immediately dispersed after gunshots rang out.

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New Yorkers, most notably former Mayor Eric Adams, harshly criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani for failing to immediately respond to the shooting.

“A 15-year-old kid was beaten and shot to death at a Southeast Queens playground yesterday. And somehow this isn’t the top story,” Adams wrote in an April 17 post on X.

“Where is everyone else, including NYC Mayor Mamdani? Outrage shouldn’t depend on zip code. Every child deserves protection,” Adams added.

Mamdani held a closed-door meeting with community leaders to discuss the incident on April 20, he told reporters.

He later addressed the shooting publicly during an unrelated news conference Wednesday for Earth Day.

“I shared my thoughts on this the other evening, where I spoke about the fact that this was heartbreaking. It was heartbreaking, not just for what it means for his family and his friends, I know it was also heartbreaking for so many New Yorkers to watch this video and see others simply witness what unfolded as opposed to step[ping] up to address it,” Mamdani said.

“That is also our responsibility as a city government. I know that I have full confidence in the NYPD’s abilities to hold the individual responsible accountable,” he continued.

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Mamdani did not attend a Monday vigil organized for Pierre but said he was setting up a time to meet with Pierre’s family.

Fox News Digital contacted the NYPD and Mamdani’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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A Pennsylvania mother who was previously convicted of accidentally killing her infant son while she was high was arrested again for allegedly endangering another child.

Pennsylvania prosecutors charged 32-year-old Arissa Ward with felony child endangerment and misdemeanor recklessly endangering another person after a 2-year-old she was supposed to be babysitting was found wandering in the middle of the road with no shoes or socks on, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania State Police told Fox News Digital.

At approximately 8:00 a.m. Tuesday, the Pennsylvania State Police, Troop J, York Station was advised a young child was found in the middle of the road on W Main St. in Windsor Borough, York County,” the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

“Investigation determined, the young child’s baby sitter, Arissa Ward, had fallen asleep and the child had gotten out of the house. The child was located in the middle of the road by a passerby who contacted PSP. The child was found with no shoes on,” the spokesman concluded.

According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law & Crime, the boy “was cold to the touch due to the temperature.”

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The boy’s mother dropped him off to Ward around 6:30 a.m. the morning of the incident.

The woman “stated the front door was unlocked, which is not common,” according to the affidavit. “She walked in the residence and took [the boy] upstairs to Ward’s bedroom, which the door was open. [The mother] stated Ward was asleep and she had to wake her up,” the affidavit continued.

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The mother then placed her son in the bed with Ward, after which Ward immediately fell asleep and had to be woken up again, Law & Crime reported, citing court documents. She told law enforcement that she did not close the bedroom door behind her, but did close the front door when she left.

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Ward texted the mother shortly after 9 a.m.

“Good morning babe!! Whatcha doin. B—- where is you,” Ward texted.

“Hey girl!!! im at work lol. i was a little late today hope i dont get into trouble lol,” the mom replied.

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About 30 minutes later, Ward texted “Where’s [the boy]???” according to Law & Crime.

The boy’s mother then started calling Ward, but got her voicemail all five times she called, according to court documents. Police called the mom at 10 a.m. letting her know they had her son.

When police knocked on Ward’s door, she allegedly answered it saying “I’m babysitting and I just woke up. What is going on?” The cops asked if she was “missing a kid,” and she replied, “Yes, yes, but he is not mine,” the affidavit said, according to Law & Crime.

“[The boy’s mom] dropped him off with me this morning,” she allegedly continued. “He’s a little boy, he’s 2… with blonde curly hair.”

When troopers found the boy, they contacted Children and Youth Services, according to Law & Crime. The group told them to “check Arissa Ward.” Ward had previously spent two days in jail after suffocating her 2-month-old son while drunk and high.

In December 2016, after a night of drinking with her partner, Ward fell asleep on the couch next to her baby. The child died of asphyxiation and had marijuana in his system.

Pleading no-contest to a manslaughter charge, Ward was supposed to receive a three-month minimum sentence. However, Judge William T. Tully instead sentenced her to only two days and then house arrest, citing her living daughter, who was 3 years old at the time, according to Penn Live Patriot News.

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“I’m going to give you the opportunity to do a little bit of penance. This will be a chance to prove yourself,” Tully told Ward. “You have got to put yourself back together. Your daughter doesn’t need a semi-mom. She needs a whole mom.”

Ward posted bail for the recent child endangerment case and is due back at court on May 5, Law & Crime reported.

Fox News Digital reached out to Windsor Police Department and York County Court for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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The towel-wearing suspect who barricaded himself inside a home amid an intense SWAT standoff following the disappearance of two University of South Florida doctoral students was charged Saturday with two counts of murder. 

Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, “is additionally facing two counts of murder in the first degree with a weapon (premeditated) in the deaths of Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy,” the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Saturday. 

“Evidence was presented to the State Attorney’s Office, resulting in further charges against Abugharbieh. To protect the integrity of the investigation, we will not be commenting on the findings in the case,” the sheriff’s office said.

“At this time, the search for Bristy continues,” the update added. “Anyone with information regarding her disappearance is asked to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at (813) 247-8200.”

Abugharbieh was initially arrested on Friday on charges of unlawfully holding or move a dead human body in unapproved conditions, failure to report death to medical examiner or law enforcement (intent to conceal), tampering with physical evidence, false imprisonment, battery. 

Authorities discovered human remains near the Howard Frankland Bridge. They were positively identified Friday as belonging to Limon. Bristy’s body remains missing as of Saturday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

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When Timothy Jones Sr. learned his grandchildren were missing, a deep, unshakable dread set in — he feared his own son had killed them.

“I remember I told my wife, ‘I know he’s killed them,’” the patriarch tearfully recalled to Fox News Digital. “I just don’t know where they are. But I know he has. I just know it in my heart. I could feel it.”

Timothy Jones Jr. admitted to killing his five children, ages 1 to 8, in their Lexington County, South Carolina, home in August 2014. He drove with their bodies in his SUV for nine days before dumping them in five garbage bags on a hillside near Camden, Alabama.

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Jones Jr. was later arrested at a traffic checkpoint in Smith County, Mississippi, after an officer smelled an odor of decomposition, The Associated Press reported.

His case is now being examined in an episode of Investigation Discovery’s (ID) true-crime series “Evil Lives Here: My Child the Killer.” It focuses on parents forced to confront the unthinkable: that the children they raised and loved have become capable of monstrous acts.

Before the murders came to light, Jones Sr. said he hadn’t heard from his son. Then came a call from his grandchildren’s school, concerned about their absence. When he reached out to one of his son’s friends, he learned that Jones Jr. hadn’t been seen in the last day or two at work.

“Then the police officer called me from Mississippi,” said Jones Sr. “I tell him, ‘I just want to make sure he is OK, and the children are with him.’ He said, ‘What children? There are no children with him. We found a little bit of blood in the car, and we’re having it checked. It could be animal blood.’”

Panicking, Jones Sr. begged to see his son. At the trial, authorities testified that they allowed the meeting, hoping a face-to-face confrontation might break Jones Jr. and reveal what had happened to the missing children.

When Jones Sr. entered the interrogation room, he was stunned by what he saw. He said it was like staring at a wild animal.

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“He’s just a blubbering mess,” said Jones Sr. “I’d never seen this person before. I didn’t know that boy. But I just wanted to know where my babies were. And he was all over the place.”

That’s when Jones Sr. said his son suddenly jumped up and snarled, “I could kill you right now.”

“I told him, ‘You can’t kill me. I love you,’” said Jones Sr. “He was going to put his hands around my throat. He never did. He just sat back down and started crying. But I just didn’t have a good feeling. I’m trying to get him to tell me anything.

“One cop got p—-d off a little bit, jumped up, and said, ‘There’s a substantial amount of blood in that damn car. I want to know what the hell is going on.’ I just looked at him in shock, like, ‘What? You just told me there was a little bit of blood, and you were going to test it.’”

Jones Sr. offered to go with his son to find the children.

“I begged him, ‘Son, please, those children are out there by themselves with animals,’” said Jones Sr. “He told me, ‘You can’t go with them.’ I said, ‘That’s fine. Just take them to those kids.’”

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Jones Jr. eventually led authorities to the bodies of his five children.

“And of course, my life’s changed ever since,” said Jones Sr.

“I knew he killed them. But how could he? What man could possibly do this to their own children?”

As a child, Jones Sr. remembered his son as “a good little boy” who grew up without his mother. Raising him on his own, Jones Sr. worked multiple jobs but still made sure to be there, fixing him breakfast, taking him to school and spending long afternoons by his side.

But looking back, there were signs that something wasn’t right.

“He was just a normal boy,” said Jones Sr. “I didn’t have any trouble with him until he was about nine. Then he shot the neighbor in the back of the leg with a BB gun, which I got him for Christmas. He had this little puppy that he slapped and swore at. It seemed unusual. But I talked to him about it, and we never had that issue again.”

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In high school, Jones Jr. became increasingly angry, worrying his father.

“We got in a few tussles and got into arguments,” said Jones Sr. “But I thought it was no more than any other teenage kid.”

In 2001, Jones Jr. was charged with a crime spree that included burglary, car theft and forged checks. He was sentenced to seven years in prison. When Jones Jr. was released, he was seemingly a changed man.

“We used to go to church,” said Jones Sr. “But when he came back [from prison], he’s all hell-bent on living by the Bible. I told him, ‘Son, I understand what you’re trying to do, but you’ve got to remember, the Bible is the guideline of life. You can’t follow every rule in there because you can contradict yourself, and it’s just too tricky.’ But he was convinced that that’s the way it was going to be.”

“I went to church with him a few times,” he said. “He would get up and act crazy. I didn’t expect it. I almost felt like he was in a cult. He was talking in tongues.”

Jones Jr. married Amber Kyzer in 2004. The union was highly tumultuous, especially in the years leading up to the killings. The relationship deteriorated into a contentious custody battle, with Jones Jr. having primary custody. They divorced in 2012.

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“In the beginning, he was a great father,” said Jones Sr. “Seemed like a good husband. We would do everything we could to help with the kids. But when they divorced, I just thought, ‘My God, it’s going to be really hard for one man with five children who has to work.’ We really wanted to help. We tried.”

“I pleaded with him, ‘Let us help you. You have family who could help. I’m here.’ But all he said was, ‘It’ll be all right.”

On their last Christmas night together, the two men got into a heated argument.

“He told me how I never loved him, never cared for him,” said Jones Sr. “Now, at that point, this had been going on many, many times. He would tell me how I didn’t love him. I finally said, ‘I gave up my life for you, raised you by myself. I did everything I possibly could. I tried to give you the best life I could. How am I a bad dad? What did I do? Tell me what I did now, and maybe I can fix it.’ And he just said, ‘I never want to see you again. You can go f— off.’”

Jones Sr. said he would reach out to his son, hoping he could see him and the kids.

“I remember he said, ‘Would you like to talk to the children?’ Now I was supposed to see him the next day. So I said, ‘You know what, Timmy? Let’s surprise them. They’ll be really happy because they loved coming over to ‘papa’s big house,’ as they called it. I built a pool and everything for them. But the next day, he went missing.”

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“That’s always been my biggest regret, not speaking to the babies one last time,” he tearfully said.

During the trial, Jones Jr.’s defense team argued that he suffered from mental health issues. Defense lawyer Boyd Young claimed the prosecution ignored evidence that proved Jones Jr. was insane. However, prosecutors maintained that Jones Jr. knew what he was doing. The jury convicted him of five counts of murder and sentenced him to death.

Jones Sr. said he hasn’t spoken to his son.

“I just can’t,” he said. “I’m falling apart. I’ve lost my business. I damn nearly lost my home. I knew he was sick. But after the trial, he called and just acted like it never happened. I’m here falling apart, and he’s just laughing, giggling. I couldn’t do this anymore.”

Jones Sr. admitted he will always carry guilt with him for the rest of his life. He still wonders what he could have done to help his son and grandchildren.

“There’s no way I cannot blame myself,” he said. “Those babies should be here. I should have done something before it went too far. I knew he was going to have a hard time with five children. I knew all these things. I should have done more. I’ll regret that until the day I die.”

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State lawmakers in New York are considering a series of “four bad bills” that critics are warning could lead to the release of mass murderers, serial killers and other violent convicts.

Among the examples Suffolk County officials and the families of victims raised at a news briefing Friday are serial killer Joel Rifkin, who murdered between nine and 17 women; commuter shooter Colin Ferguson, who killed six and wounded 19 on the Long Island Rail Road; and the White supremacist gunman Payton Gendron, who livestreamed the massacre of 10 people at a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo.

Thousands of other violent criminals could also be released. The bills aim to establish an elder parole program in the Empire State, among other changes that would result in the early release of killers.

“We’re talking about the worst of the worst,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told Fox News Digital. “The people who have done really the worst acts possible and have proven to be really a danger to our society. And they’re like an infinitesimal, small percentage of our population who create an inordinately large amount of all of the problems, all the violence, all of the theft and everything else.“

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Joining Suffolk County officials at a news briefing Friday was Theresa Bliss, whose 25-year-old son David was murdered in 2021 outside a pizzeria in Port Jefferson after an argument with strangers.

“I have a question for every New York lawmaker pushing the Earned Time Act, Fair and Timely Parole Act, Elder Parole and Second Look Act, does our pain mean anything to you?” she asked. “How do you fight so aggressively for the early release of murderers, yet dismiss the families whose lives were shattered?”

The victims don’t get second chances, she added.

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The man who shot her son received a sentence for 40 years to life in prison. Under the proposed reforms, parole could come much sooner.

“When you pass laws that prioritize criminals over victims, you’re not reforming the system — you’re erasing us,” she said.

The briefing came days after Tierney secured a guilty plea from another Long Island serial killer, Rex Heuermann, who is expected to be sentenced in June after admitting to torturing and killing eight women.

Tierney has been a frequent critic of the state’s recent bail reform laws, which allowed a group of people suspected of dismembering a body and littering the remains around Long Island’s south shore to go free before police had enough evidence to also charge them with killing the victim.

And earlier this month, he sidestepped the state’s sanctuary laws in order to make sure Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took custody of a Guatemalan man accused of raping a child.

“While these bills are often framed as reforms and have innocuous titles, in reality, they will push thousands of New York’s most violent criminals out onto our streets,” Tierney warned.

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Some key issues Tierney and Suffolk County Executive Edward Romaine, both Republicans, slammed at a news briefing Friday:

One bill would cut all sentences less than life in prison by half and prevent prison assaults and stabbings from being deducted from credits for good behavior. Since the proposed reduction applies retroactively, it would “result in the immediate release of thousands of New York’s most dangerous inmates.”

“These people are where they are because they richly deserve it,” Tierney told Fox News Digital. “Every second of whatever sentence they receive, they’ve earned.”

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Another bill would block the state’s parole board from considering the nature of the original crime when weighing parole — “no matter how horrible.” This specifically benefits murderers and rapists, the officials said, and implies that parole is automatic, not something earned.

“It turns parole upside down — it prohibits consideration of the seriousness of the crime and even the defendant’s remorse or lack of it,” Tierney said.

In the Bliss case, the killer was seen on home security video shortly after the shooting laughing about it. At future parole board hearings, the people deciding his fate would be unable to consider that behavior if the bill passes.

A third would impose a California-style elder parole in New York, and take the concept one step further, the officials warned. The Empire State’s version would abolish life without parole, “even for serial killers, cop killers and racist murderers.” It applies to inmates who have served at least 15 years of a sentence, including a life sentence, and are older than 55.

“Once [Gendron] turns 55, every two years those families are going to have to go through the parole process again,” Tierney said. “Why?”

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The fourth bill gives felons a chance to petition a judge for a sentence reduction. The judge cannot be the same one who imposed their sentence to begin with. There is no limit on the number or frequency of petitions, and if one is denied, the inmate can immediately file another with a different judge.

“These bills are an insult to every law-abiding citizen, the law enforcement community and especially the victims of these crimes,” said Romaine, the top elected official in Suffolk County, a suburb of New York City. “Use common sense and do not pass these bills.”

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office for comment.