Detectives have booked a 25-year-old man on murder charges in connection with a Bronx bodega shooting early Tuesday morning that left one man dead and two people seriously injured.
Edison Cruz, 25, of Andrews Avenue in University Heights was taken into custody and booked for murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.
Police picked Cruz up not long after the shooting, which occurred at 12:46 a.m. on May 3 inside the Zubaidi II Grocery Corp. at 6 East Burnside Ave., off Jerome Avenue, in University Heights.
Officers from the 46th Precinct, in responding to a 911 call about the shooting, found a 31-year-old man shot in the head and torso. Responding EMS units pronounced him dead at the scene; police have withheld his identity, pending family notification.
Cops also located two other shooting victims — a 34-year-old man shot in the left arm, and a 34-year-old woman who had been hit in the torso. EMS rushed them to St. Barnabas Hospital, where the man was listed in stable condition, and the woman was in critical condition.
While the motive for the shooting remains under investigation, police sources said, detectives believe that Cruz was involved in a dispute with at least one of the victims prior to the shooting.
During the investigation, officers located the firearm allegedly used in the deadly shooting in a trash can near a Taco Bell restaurant at the corner of Jerome and East Burnside Avenues.
Law enforcement sources said Cruz had three prior arrests; he was charged in June 2020 on a weapons possession charge after being caught holding an incendiary projectile/launcher in public while wearing heavy ballistic armor.
Two months later, authorities said, he was back in the slammer for domestic assault — and in May 2021, he was picked up for criminal possession of a weapon after being found in possession of a polymer .80-caliber ghost gun.
After being initially held on $30,000 bail after his May 2021 arrest, Cruz was released on his own recognizance on July 9, according to court records. He has since made a number of court appearances related to that case.
