15-Year-Old Bronx Shooting Victim Awake, Conscious
By MEREDITH TRAINA wpix.com

2:41 p.m. EST, November 20, 2009
NEW YORK (WPIX)—
The 15-year-old Bronx girl struck by a stray bullet earlier this week, was taken off a ventilator Friday.

Vada Vasquez is breathing on her own and is no longer under sedation, doctors said. Her family is by her side at Lincoln Hospital as she remains in critical, but stable condition.

Vasquez was shot in the back of the head Monday as she walked home from school. Authorities say the shooter, Carvett Gentles, 16, was targeting 19-year-old Tyrone Creighton. The boys had been feuding over an ongoing conflict on Rikers Island involving Gentles' brothers and an inmate identified as Joe Darrell.

Creighton, who was hit in the lung, is in good condition at Lincoln Hospital, officials said.

Meanwhile, Gentles' mother, Zelita Mighty, broke down in tears inside Bronx Criminal Court Thursday. Prosecutors say her baby-faced son confessed to the shooting, though the boy's lawyer maintains in innocence.

Also ordered held without bail on attempted murder charges are: Rohan Francis, 18; Cleve Smith, 20; Clivie Smith, 19, and Dwayne Taylor, 23 - all alleged members of a neighborhood gang known as the Gorilla Stone Blood.