THE BRONX — A worker in a Bronx bodega was shot and killed by police as he escaped an armed robbery in the store, police sources and witnesses said.
Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, and his uncle were in Natalie Grocery, at 1229 Franklin Avenue, when armed robbers burst in as the store was closing at 2 a.m., police sources said.
The victims were held hostage, but managed to escape just as police were arriving, the victim’s cousin told the Daily News.
As they sprinted from the store, Cuevas was shot in the torso by a cop, police sources and a witness said.
“The first guy ran out with his hands on his head,” said Jesse Rodriguez, 23, a neighborhood resident, of one of the victims.
“The second guy ran out and tripped by the fire hydrant,” he added, referring to Cuevas. “And the cops shot him.”
Cuevas, who was not armed, was shot once in the torso, police and witnesses said.
“People were screaming, ‘He works there! He’s an employee!” Rodriguez added. “He was innocent.”
Cuevas was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The circumstances of the shooting were still under investigation, police said.
Police sources said the cop who fired the shot believed Cuevas was a suspect chasing the first victim.
Cops made more than one arrest, police said, but did not provide further details.
Meanwhile, a marked police vehicle racing to the scene got into an accident, an NYPD spokeswoman said. An officer inside the car was injured and taken to a local hospital, she said, but was not seriously hurt.
Rodriguez said he spoke to Cuevas just four hours before the shooting.
“We were just talking about life, music, sports, baseball,” he said. “He was a Yankees fan.”
Alfredo Lambert, 27, remembered Cuevas as a hard worker who valued the bodega’s customers.
“He treated everyone with respect,” Lambert, a computer technician, said. “He was our little angel.”
‘Meanwhile, a marked police vehicle racing to the scene got into an accident.’
Damn. ‘We’ lost three F/A-18 fighter jets in the USS Truman show near Yemen. $60 million apiece.
Sixty-four people lost their lives at DCA when an Army Black Hawk helicopter flew into a passenger jet’s final approach at 300 feet altitude.
Now the NYPD smashed up a car racing to a crime scene, then shot one of the victims.
Don’t be surprised if Clownworld closes for repairs and a software upgrade. This B-movie has totally lost the plot. 🙁
New York City is the epitome of citizen disarmament whose residents have been taking it for a very long time…and apparently liking it.
Since the Sullivan Laws were enacted, enabling the most extreme and restrictive limits on the acquisition and uses of firearms, the Constitutional right to defend one’s self and others has been almost totally obliterated.
Once restricted to handguns, the laws have been extended to rifles and shotguns, all of (what were supposed to be “registered”) demanding that they either be confiscated or taken out of NYC.
I’ll bet that those people who voluntarily turned in their weapons added to NYC police officers’ gun collections.
NYC prosecutors relish the thought of prosecuting those who legally defend themselves, even a “rolled up newspaper” is considered to be an illegal “weapon”.
The honest citizen is the easiest person to charge and convict.
If you defend yourself successfully against a criminal without NYC police being involved, you WILL be prosecuted.
Witness Daniel Penny who was being viciously prosecuted for saving fellow subway passengers from mentally ill Jordan Neely who had been harassing and threatening subway passengers for decades. Thankfully he was acquitted of all charges.
The case of the bodega owner, Jose Alba who successfully thwarted a knife attack, his attacker succumbing to his injuries, was under indictment and prosecution for murder until a groundswell of opposition forced the prosecutor to back off on prosecuting him.
The case of Bernie Goetz, the subway rider who thwarted being robbed by dispatching three of his attackers to the “hospital”. Subway crimes dropped dramatically after that act. If Goetz had kept his mouth shut, no one would have been the wiser.
What kind of society prosecutes the victim of a crime?
It happens in NYC all the time.
You see, the approximately 36,000 NYC police officers constitute a powerful lobby and do not want to give up their monopoly on the use of force.
They cannot have their monopoly on the use of force jeopardized by allowing honest citizens to provide for their own self-defense by “taking the law into their own hands”.
Despite having relatives who live in NYC, I will not visit or enter NYC. This also applies to New Jersey.
The circus continues!
New York’s finest?!
Perhaps NYC has a point about not wanting armed citizens in the 5 boroughs. Assuming everyone acts as the NYPD with regards to firing weapons, I am not sure if I would want armed citizens. 😉
Kinda the point. Armed folks generally exercise a standard of caution apparantly missing with the NYPD.
damon: That’s because “armed folks” are held to much higher standard of accountability when they shoot someone than the thug scrum are. We don’t have apologists in the media, supervisors that give bad behavior a wink and a nod, along with co-workers that will make things up to cover for us if we screw up. On the contrary; at the federal L.E.O. level if you’re willing to shoot a woman holding a baby in Idaho and then move on to kill a few Texans (especially women and children) portrayed as religious fanatics, you might even get promoted. Back in the 60’s my dad had a cop tell him, “There’s no cop so stupid that when he shoots somebody he can’t find a brick or a bottle or something to put in his hand.” I doubt much has changed since then other than to get worse.