BRONX, NYC — One man was fatally shot and two others were inured when a gunman suddenly opened fire on a smoke shop in the Bronx early Tuesday.
Just before 1am, police say the gunman opened fire on the business on East Burnside Avenue in the Tremont neighborhood.
According to authorities, he then walked inside the Bronx smoke shop and shot a 31-year-old male in the head and torso. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Two more victims, both 34 years old and thought to be innocent bystanders, were also hit by gunfire. A woman was shot in the torso and a man was shot in the arm.
Both were rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, with the woman in critical condition and the man in stable condition.
Later, Edison Cruz, 25, was apprehended by police. He faces charges of murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.
The incident allegedly began at a Taco Bell a few blocks away where Cruz works, where the victim and several others were smoking weed and acting unruly, according to police.
They were allegedly booted out, returned, and were again thrown out, with Cruz then apparently following them to the smoke shop.
Surveillance camera captured what happened next, showing three people exiting the smoke shop, one holding a bat.
The man he’s arguing with, who is thought to be Cruz, then fires several shots towards the group and into the business.
The gunman then enters the shop and fires a few more shots before strolling away casually, the footage shows.
The murder weapon, according to police, was a ghost gun found nearby at Tremont and East Jerome avenues.
Cruz was previously arrested for weapons possession in May of 2021, supposedly with a ghost gun. Prosecutors in the Bronx had requested for a $15,000 bond, but he was released on his own recognizance.
In 2020, he was arrested twice: once in August for allegedly throwing a plate of food in his mother’s face and threatening to kill her, and again in June for reportedly walking down Andrews Avenue and 179th Street in the Bronx while wearing a bulletproof vest and a grenade launcher strapped to his back.
A shotgun, firearm receivers, drill bits, manufacturing tools, a firearm manufacturing template, a shotgun barrel and stock, a hatchet, and Glock components were discovered during a search of his Bronx apartment, according to police.