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The teen was detained on a delinquency complaint accusing him of murder and weapons possession in the Friday shooting outside a Rosa Parks Boulevard restaurant, up the street from Paterson Eastside High School.
A woman had dropped off the teen and 24-year-old Quadir McRae at the La Romano Deli Restaurant just off 16th Avenue, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes and Paterson Police Chief Troy Oswald said.
A short time later, McRae got into a brawl with Sadott Free, 22, they said.
The 14-year-old then fired a handgun, hitting Free in the torso and killing him, Valdes and Oswald said.
Another bullet his McRae in the leg, they said.
Free "went into the restaurant seeking help before first responders arrived," Valdes and Oswald said in a joint release issued Monday.
The same woman who dropped them off brought McRae and the juvenile to the hospital, they said.
They didn't disclose the relationships among McRae, the teen and the woman.
McRae was eventually released after being treated, the release says.
That makes 19 homicides in the Silk City this year. There were 13 all of 2018 -- the lowest number in 14 years.
Over a five-year period, Paterson averaged 21.4 homicides a year between 2013 and 2017, with a high of 26 in 2014.
Valdes didn't immediately say whether she's considering prosecuting the boy as an adult. The youngest someone can be tried as an adult in New Jersey is 14.
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