SAN FRANCISCO – A 16-year-old boy was charged Thursday with murder and attempted murder in a shooting in San Francisco’s Western Addition that left a 15-year-old girl dead. 

“This was a life lost far too soon,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. The girl who died, Jayda Mabrey, was a 10th grader at Gateway High School.

“She was a girl who was beloved in her community, and to lose that life so soon, so early, under these circumstances, has really rocked the community,” Jenkins said.

Jayda was killed and two 16-year-old boys were wounded when a fight erupted into gunfire near Golden Gate Avenue and Laguna Street at about 5 p.m. Friday. Jayda’s younger sister witnessed the shooting.

First court hearing 

What we know:

On Thursday, both suspects appeared at a hearing at the Juvenile Justice Center that was open to reporters but closed to cameras.

The 16-year-old suspect was also charged with two counts of attempted murder and assault with a firearm. He repeatedly shook his head as the judge read the charges.

 A second suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was charged with attempted murder for wounding one of those boys.

Through their attorneys, both boys denied all charges, including conspiracy and gun allegations.

Murder case could be moved to adult court

What they’re saying:

Jenkins said she will determine at a later date whether to ask a judge to have the 16-year-old tried as an adult. The other defendant is too young, at age 15, to be transferred to adult court.

 “We have a lot of work to do when it comes to making sure that guns are not in the hands of our kids,” the prosecutor said.

If the case stays in juvenile court, the most the 16-year-old could stay in custody would be until he’s 25 years old. If he’s charged as an adult, he could face up to 25 years to life in prison.

 Jenkins said the juvenile justice system is broken because those two possibilities are extreme.

 “There’s a big gulf in between there that unfortunately needs to be considered,” Jenkins said.

Judge Anne Costin of San Francisco Superior Court ordered both teens held in custody at least until the next hearing later this month. 

Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on X @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan

Bad Bunny is expected to perform the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday entirely in Spanish — which has inspired fans to quickly learn the language.

In October, the Puerto Rican singer — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — kicked off the 51st season of “Saturday Night Live” expressing pride over the achievement in Spanish, after which he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”

That declaration further stoked the anger of some conservatives who have vilified Bad Bunny for speaking out against President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. The singer canceled the U.S. portion of his tour last year out of fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would target his fans.

There’s been a frenzy online of people posting about Bad Bunny lyrics, including Puerto Ricans explaining slang used by the singer and non-Spanish speakers documenting their journey to learn Spanish.

Anticipation for his halftime performance has only intensified since last weekend, when his album, ” Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy for album of the year. He did not shy away from addressing targeted federal immigration operations at the awards.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said in English after winning his first Grammy for música urbana album. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”

Fans are learning Spanish before the Super Bowl

Niklaus Miller, 29, has been buckling down on learning Bad Bunny lyrics since the singer’s SNL appearance months ago.

“I am delusional enough to be like ‘this would be easy. I could pick it up pretty quickly,’” Miller said.

The fervor to learn a new language within a short time span highlights the powerful impact of Latino culture in the U.S. despite the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions.

“It felt like a form of protest,” Miller said. “What can I do right now besides what everyone is doing that is trying to help? It just feels good.”

Miller said he has gotten messages from people who watch his videos with their parents since he started posting about the process of learning Spanish. They say they feel seen and appreciated.

While Miller hasn’t learned Bad Bunny’s entire discography, he has learned portions of six songs that he feels will be part of the halftime show, including “Tití Me Preguntó,” “DtMF” and “Baile Inolvidable.”

The day after Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime act, O’Neil Thomas, 28, a New York City actor and content creator, started learning the singer’s catalog.

“I was just so excited because he wasn’t an artist that I expected,” Thomas said. “And given how we are right now with the state of the country I think he is the perfect person to headline such a humongous stage.”

The response to his TikTok videos – showing Thomas learning “NUEVAYoL” and other tracks — have been really positive, Thomas added. Many Puerto Rican people have reached out, saying they’re proud that someone outside the community is attempting to learn about their culture.

Latin music and culture intensify interest in language

“People were already starting to make the effort with learning Spanish as a result of their interest in Latin music,” said Vanessa Díaz, associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University. “The Super Bowl itself is an additional push for a trend that was already happening.”

Díaz, who is the co-author of “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,” says the rise of Latin music over the past decade has pushed non-Spanish speakers to learn the language. Bad Bunny’s clear messaging in his lyrics, videos and performances amplifies that interest, Díaz said.

Spanish is the most spoken language at home behind English in the U.S. — except in three states, according to U.S. Census data. Over 13% of residents age 5 and older speak it.

For Thomas, Bad Bunny’s music offered the perfect opportunity to take on the challenge of learning a new language.

“I love Spanish and I always wanted to learn it,” Thomas said. “So, this has been a fun introduction for me to finally hone in.”

Both Miller and Thomas said that learning Spanish, specifically Puerto Rican Spanish, in a short period of time has been a unique challenge.

Thomas said listening to Bad Bunny’s music casually is a different experience than learning the lyrics.

“Listening to his music is really fun,” Thomas said. “The amount of times I’ve pressed rewind just to get a phrase, I can’t even count.”

Miller said the hard part about learning the songs is that the Puerto Rican dialect tends to chop some words and it is very fast. Miller said if he hasn’t worked on understanding a song for days, he might forget the pronunciation and it’s hard to come back to it.

“It’s fun but then stressful because I am a Type-A person, so that’s been hard, honestly,” Miller said. “I’m firing on all cylinders.”

A landmark for Latino culture is also politically divisive

Bad Bunny’s booking at the Super Bowl has been divisive from the start. Trump called the selection “ridiculous.” Conservatives have called it anti-American — even though native-born Puerto Ricans are also U.S. citizens. Turning Point USA is putting on an alternative “All-American Halftime Show” with a lineup led by Kid Rock.

This all comes against the backdrop of Latinos and Spanish-speaking communities being targeted in Trump’s immigration crackdowns. His executive actions have vastly expanded who is eligible for deportation and routine hearings have turned into deportation traps for migrants.

For Bad Bunny, the halftime show is the ultimate stage to showcase his music, heritage and global influence. For the NFL and Apple Music, it’s a balancing act: deliver a spectacle that celebrates diversity without igniting controversy that scares off advertisers.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has stood by the choice, citing Bad Bunny’s immense popularity.

Petra Rivera-Rideau, associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College and co-author of “P FKN R,” said there’s a long history in the U.S. of Spanish being criminalized.

Bad Bunny is making it cool to know the language and changing the narrative around it, Diaz said. Now Spanish is something that people are aspiring to learn.

Díaz doesn’t think his performance will necessarily shift how Latinos are perceived in the U.S. but she says it will create an interesting conversation depending on “how people are going to grapple with the magnitude of having someone like Bad Bunny on the stage.”

At a time when “the U.S. is targeting Latinos and migrants and Spanish speakers or even those who are just perceived to be any of those things in a way that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes,” his visibility is powerful, Diaz said.

When the Super Bowl kicks off on Sunday, one local fan will be there as an honored guest.  

A long-time Army veteran will be getting the VIP treatment, and it won’t cost him a dime.  It’s payback for a life spent serving his country and his community.

When Eugene “Rich” Ritchie retired, he began volunteering at the USO Lounge at SFO, welcoming service members traveling to and from the city. But the other day, the USO staff told him that he had been nominated to be in a contest.  

That’s when he got the phone call.

“And it’s, ‘Congratulations, we selected you.’  And I was like, what?!  Really?” Rich said.  “And they said, who’s your favorite player? I said, ‘McCaffrey, right now, is my most favorite current player. Oh yeah, McCaffrey, he’s awesome.’  And they’re like, ‘ho, ho, ho’… I’m like, ‘OK, something’s up.’”

Sponsored by the USAA insurance company, Rich and his wife Alexia, who live in Richmond, will get tickets to the game, a hotel on Union Square, and pretty much an entire weekend of fun for doing something that started clear back when he joined the ROTC program at Cal Berkeley.  

Rich was the only one to select “infantry” as his desired duty when everyone else wanted military intelligence.

“So, I was an anomaly at Berkeley,” he said, with a laugh.

 In 1981, he was a 20-year-old lieutenant and was eventually sent to Korea to command a security unit at the DMZ, at a time when tensions were running high. After that came 20 years of training and service in Honduras and various bases stateside. Then came 9/11 and the US war on terror, and Rich was sent to Iraq to help the locals become a capable fighting force.

“I lived with the Iraqis,” he said. “My job was to live with the Iraqis.  I had a team and we basically trained them in Western tactics.”

Rich said he was impressed with the courage shown by the Iraqi forces he trained. He served for a total of 24 years, from 1981 to 2005, retiring with the rank of Major in the US Army.  Later, after getting out of the military, he took a position as a special education teacher at Albany Middle School, a job his wife Alexia said required a bit of courage, as well.

“He didn’t shed a tear in Iraq, but he cried his first couple of days as a teacher at the middle school with a bunch of 6th graders!” she said, laughing.  “That was his breaking point.  But he survived and he’s a veteran of both occupations, you bet.”

Alexia is also a 49er fan, but she’s an even bigger fan of her husband, saying he put off his retirement to volunteer to serve in Iraq.

“He could have retired, but he actually pulled his retirement paperwork so that he could step up for an eight-month deployment in Iraq,” she said.  “And to watch him being again in the spotlight — so well deserved — is what makes my experience here that much sweeter.”

And the sweetness began on Wednesday, when Rich and Alexia got their tickets and a chance to meet their favorite player. Niners running back Christian McCaffrey has his own foundation to support veterans, so this Super Bowl promotion was a natural fit.

“I’m really proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m super excited about the work to come in the future,” McCaffrey said.  “We get to play a kid’s game for a living.  We play in front of millions of people.  And a lot of that is because of the people who have sacrificed for us.”

Rich was surprised that he was selected, but he has spent his entire life in service to others. And now, he’s serving again, this time as a symbol for all the men and women who are part of something much more important than just a “kid’s game.”