Police are looking for two 16-year-olds in connection with separate fatal shootings of two other teens this month. Both shootings happened while groups of young people were handling guns in bedrooms in separate Bronx apartments, according to NYPD officials.

Police reports show that more teenagers have been arrested for fatal shootings so far this year than any other age group.

The two recent incidents led to the deaths of 16-year-old John Nunez, who was killed on Aug. 10 in Crotona Park, and 15-year-old Riley Billingslea, who was killed on Aug. 12 in Kingsbridge Heights.

According to NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, Nunez and two other boys were inside an apartment on Prospect Avenue around 5 a.m., and Nunez was accidentally shot by a friend who was handling a gun he didn’t realize was loaded.

“They're playing with a firearm. Our [victim] is asked, ‘Is there one in the head?’ Meaning, is there one in the chamber? The [victim] says no,” Kenny said. “The perpetrator here…points the gun at the [victim], pulls the trigger. There was one in the chamber, and he accidentally shoots him in the head.”

Kenny said police are searching for the 16-year-old suspect, who may have left the state.

Two days later, Billingslea was killed in a similar situation: Kenny said he was hanging out with several boys in an apartment on Claflin Avenue just before 6 p.m. when one of them pulled a gun out of his backpack.

“He inserts a magazine, racks the gun back, and makes the statement, ‘I'm gonna throw some pain,’” Kenny said. The suspect shot Billingslea in the head, killing him instantly, Kenny said.

A 13-year-old boy also at the scene was grazed in the chest when the bullet ricocheted off a wall, he added.

The 16-year-old suspect in that case was also able to escape, according to Kenny, and police are still looking for him.

Gun violence is inherently complex, and experts say it is hard to pinpoint the biggest reasons that more teens are allegedly participating in shootings.

Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who specializes in crime prevention and policing, said he thinks New York’s Raise the Age law has contributed to the increase in young people suspected of gun violence. The measure, which was passed in 2017 and implemented in 2018, was intended to divert more 16- and 17-year-olds accused of misdemeanors, nonviolent felonies and some violent felonies to family court, and keep them out of adult jails and prisons.

“ I would argue it's good for the kid with a gun to be punished mildly so they stop doing it, as opposed to getting them for murder when they’re 18,” Moskos previously told Gothamist.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has also spoken out about changing elements of Raise the Age, especially when it comes to gun possession.

“We didn't necessarily have to treat 16-year-olds as adults, but I think that the way [the law] was written, it still hinders us from it being the best that it could be,” Clark previously told Gothamist. “ What I've seen is that I'm losing a generation of young people to this violence.”