Camp Named For Slain Bronx Teen Opens Outside NYC

THE BRONX, NY — Call it Junior's new home away from home. A summer camp aiming to give kids alternatives to gangs has been named for a Bronx teen whom gang members brutally murdered last year, state officials announced Wednesday.

Some 500 kids are expected to flock this summer to Camp Junior at Harriman State Park, named in honor Lesandro Guzman-Feliz, the aspiring cop who was stabbed to death in The Bronx in June 2018.

Located in Orange County roughly 40 miles from where Guzman-Feliz died, the recently renovated camp will offer kids anti-violence and anti-gang lessons along with social activities, state officials said.

"The grisly murder of 'Junior' Guzman-Feliz was a senseless tragedy that shook the New York family to its core, and a reminder that we need to do more to address the causes and conditions that produce violence," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "Camp Junior is providing Bronx kids with a home away from home and teaching them skills to resist the temptation to join a gang in the first place."

The Cuomo administration announced the camp's opening less than a month after a Bronx jury convicted five reputed Trinitarios gang members of murdering Guzman-Feliz, who was affectionately known as Junior. The mistaken-identity killing happened when the men came upon Guzman-Feliz as they planned to attack a rival faction of their gang.

New York State Parks gave the once-dilapidated youth camp a $2 million, two-year renovation and set up Camp Junior in collaboration with Bronx officials and the Fresh Air Fund, a nonprofit that supports summer programs for low-income city kids, Cuomo's office said.

The camp's programs are open to 9-to-13-year-old kids whom the Fresh Air Fund will choose from Bronx neighborhoods with a risk of gang activity, according to the Democratic governor's office. Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie have helped fund the camp, Cuomo's office said.

"We need to take care of the future of our children and it's amazing to see all of the kids who are going to have such an amazing opportunity and experience and at this camp," Junior's mother, Leandra Feliz, said in a statement.

The camp isn't the only piece of Junior's lasting legacy. The New York City Police Foundation set up a college scholarship fund in his honor last year.