Police: Arrest made after man fatally shot inside Bronx deli, 2 innocent bystanders wounded
NEW YORK -- A Bronx neighborhood is in shock after three people were shot overnight in a deli, one of them fatally.
Police said 25-year-old Edison Cruz of the Bronx was arrested and hit with multiple charges, adding a gun was recovered at the scene.
Investigators say Cruz has a lengthy record, including a gun charge from 2021.
As CBS2's Dave Carlin reports, the suspect is seen on security video that shows the front of the store on East Burnside Avenue, capturing the gunman, arm raised and shooting his way inside.
The video shows the gunfire. Bullets fatally struck the head and chest of a 31-year-old man, who police say had been in an argument with the gunman around the corner at a fast food restaurant.
It happened at 1 a.m. Tuesday.
Jay Simon, who bought the deli two years ago, says he heard the commotion while he was on the phone with an employee at the cash register.
"While he counted the money and talked to me on the phone, those people, they started running all the way inside the store. And the guy came from behind them and he started shooting at them," Simon said.
He said two of his customers were also shot, the pair were just bystanders, including a man at the door of the store who ran and was shot in the arm.
The third bystander shot was already inside by the ATM when a stray bullet struck her torso.
Both shooting survivors are 34 and were brought to Saint Barnabas Hospital. The woman is in critical and a man in stable condition.
CBS2's Elijah Westbrook spoke talked to a friend of the woman who was shot.
"I want to make sure she's OK. That's all that matters to me. I had got a call that she had got shot. I just jumped in my clothes and ran outside. I had to make sure my friend was OK, but by the time I got here she was already in the ambulance and she was gone," said Jolanda Richards.
"Normally, I would be in that store. But thank God I didn't go today, because I probably would have been one of those people," said Armoni Phillips.
The suspect fled on foot toward Grand Concourse, and within a few hours police made an arrest.
Cruz has been charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Police and witnesses told us Cruz was working at the fast food restaurant and had an altercation with a group described as acting disorderly. That group included the man later shot and killed.
"It's going to be a moment before I go back into that store. I can't do it," Phillips said.
