KRISTAL BAYRON-NIEVES.Photo: Go Fund Me
Kristal Bayron-Nieves was scared to work the night shift at a New York City Burger King where she’d just gotten a job.
The 19-year-old asked to work days instead because she was so worried about her safety.
On Jan. 9, the very thing she feared became a reality when a gunman wearing a black ski mask walked into the fast-food restaurant in East Harlem at about 1 a.m., pointed a gun at her, and demanded money, the New York City Police Department says in a statement.
With trembling hands, the teen searched for the key to open the cash register drawer,The New York Timesreports.
Still shaking, she handed the masked gunman about $100, an eyewitness told the girl’s mother, theNew York Postreports.
After Bayron-Nieves handed the suspect the money, he allegedly shot her in the torso, the NYPD says in its statement.
She was rushed to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.
“She give him the money and everything,” family friend Nathalie Pagan told theDaily News.“She didn’t even do nothing wrong.”
Before allegedly shooting the teen, the suspect pistol-whipped a male customer and allegedly punched a female manager in the face, thePostreports.
After scouring the city for the suspect, on Friday, the NYPD arrested Winston Glynn, 30, and charged him with murder, robbery, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon: loaded firearm, the NYPD said.
It is unclear whether Glynn has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Winston Glynn.Instagram
He remains held behind bars until his next court date.
As police continue to investigate, Bayron-Nieves' mother, Kristie Nieves, 36, is wracked with guilt for telling her daughter to go to work even though she was so frightened, thePostreports.
Talking to thePostthrough family friend Nathalie Pagan, her mother said, “[Kristal] said [Friday], ‘I don’t want to go. I’m scared.’
The slain teen’s mother “feels guilty about that,” Pagan told thePost.
According to Pagan, theDaily Newsreports, Kristie Nieves told her daughter to go to work that night.
Kristal Bayron-Nieves.Go Fund Me
“You gotta be responsible and you gotta go because you’re on the schedule already,” Kristie Nieves told her daughter, Pagan said.
Bayron-Nieves was supposed to begin working the day shift five days after the fatal shooting, theDaily Newsreports.
“It was gonna end on Friday — this Friday,” Kristie Nieves told theNews.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Bayron-Nieves had just earned her G.E.D., Pagan told theNews.
“She was still growing up,” Pagan said. “She was working for what she wants right now, and that was a car.”
Bayron-Nieves and her family had moved to New York from Puerto Rico a few years ago, theNewsreports.
“That could be an issue here,” the NYPD’s Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said at a news conference Friday,The Timesreports. “Maybe he’s a person who, had he gotten services earlier on, we could have saved this woman’s life.”
AGoFundMehas been started for the teen’s family to help with funeral expenses.
source: people.com
