The Bronx teen savagely slain for being in the wrong place at the wrong time had recently fallen in with a troubled crowd, prompting his worried parents to take drastic steps — with his dad even hiding his shoes to try to keep him at home.
A rebellious turn by 14-year-old Angel Mendoza — who was pistol-whipped, beaten and repeatedly stabbed late Tuesday in apparent revenge for a playground fight he wasn’t involved in — began in May, when the formerly good student started skipping class, his father Miguel Mendoza told The Post on Friday.
Miguel Mendoza blamed the bad influence of his son’s friends for him starting to stray off the straight-and-narrow path.
“I would hide the shoes so he won’t go out, but he’d find a way to go out,” the heartbroken dad said.
The change in Angel — who was not in a gang or involved in any criminal activity, according to law-enforcement sources — was concerning enough that Miguel Mendoza said he contacted authorities seeking some kind of help, to no avail.
“I went to family court, they did nothing,” he said. “I called the police, they said he’s a minor, they can’t do nothing. I went to ACS, they did nothing.”
Angel Mendoza regularly hung out at Williamsbridge Oval Playground in Norwood, where he played basketball like his favorite NBA players LeBron James and Ja Morant, his father said.
He was at the playground Tuesday evening when a group of teens attacked him in apparent revenge for the stabbing of a 17-year-old boy earlier that evening, source said.
Angel was not involved at that fight or involved in it in any way but may have known people who were part of it — making his death a senseless case of “wrong place, wrong time,” sources said.
Miguel Mendoza, who cradled Angel’s inconsolable mother Ramona Hernandez de Mendoza at times as he spoke, remembered his son as a loving child who was fond of rap, reggaeton and dance.
He said Angel was born in the Dominican Republic, the second of three siblings, and had moved to the city when he was 4.
“There is a hole in my heart because my son is not here,” the dad said. “He’s gone. He’s not coming back. He was my first boy. I’m very angry — a lot.
“I want justice to be served.”
