Police seek suspect in fatal Broadway shooting

Posted

Officers from the 50th Precinct are seeking the suspect in the fatal Wednesday morning shooting of a 22-year-old man.

Steven Maldonado was shot in front of the Rich 99 Cent & Up Shop at 5521 Broadway around 9:30 a.m. yesterday. Store surveillance footage showed a black, roughly 5-foot-10 male with braids pacing inside the shop before springing outside to shoot the victim.

“All of our units are aware of who he is and what area he lives at,” Officer Juan Ventura, a spokesman for the 50th Precinct, said of the suspect. The suspect is believed to live in the Marble Hill area, although Officer Ventura added authorities are yet to identify him.

A friend of Mr. Maldonado said the victim had been living in the friend’s apartment at the Marble Hill Houses on Broadway prior to the shooting.

The cause of the shooting was not immediately known, but the friend, Louis Rodriguez, said Mr. Maldonado had recently “had a little problem with someone, but I didn’t think it would go this far.”

Mr. Rodriguez said Mr. Maldonado “just got out of jail.” The victim recently received a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to a trespassing charge, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s office. On April 12, a bench warrant was issued for other trespassing charges. In his last case, he was charged with criminal sale of marijuana and unlawful possession of marijuana and was due back in court on Tuesday, August 4.

However, another friend, Brandon Alvarez, said, “He was on the right path. He never looked for trouble.”

Mr. Alvarez, 18, and Mr. Rodriguez were speaking this afternoon at a homemade memorial at the site of the crime, in which Mr. Maldonado staggered into the 99 Cent store after being shot. After responding authorities took him to New York Presbyterian Hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival.

killing, Steven Maldonado, Shant Shahrigian
Page 1 / 2