Police have identified the gunman who fired the fatal shot that killed a 29-year-old party promoter caught in the crosshairs of a robbery in a Bronx deli early Easter morning.
The regional fugitive task force is searching for 31-year-old Shward Bee, who cops say shot Stefon Barnes inside the Tremont Gourmet Deli on E. Tremont Ave. near Marmion Ave. in East Tremont around 4:20 a.m. on March 31.
When an Easter party Barnes was hosting wrapped up, the man headed to the nearby deli to order breakfast, the Daily News previously reported.
In surveillance footage obtained by The News, Barnes could be seen standing by a potato chip rack as a as a masked man struggled with another man near the door of the deli.
Barnes was uninvolved in the robbery and did not know the victim or the mugger.
The two men struggled over the Bee’s gun as Barnes stayed out of the chaos, looking at his phone.
“The robbery victim’s friend sees what’s going on, runs in from the street, grabs the perpetrator in a chokehold and they continue to struggle over the firearm,” NYPD Chief of Detective Joseph Kenny said at a Tuesday news briefing. “At some point, the gun goes off and unfortunately, Mr. Barnes was struck in his left leg near his groin.”
In footage from outside the deli, Barnes were seen stumbling behind a car while customers and the people involved in the mugging took off.
Barnes lost a “tremendous” amount of blood and could not be saved, Kenny said.
Police released a photo of the suspect and received numerous Crime Stoppers tips that led them to Bee, who has five prior arrests in both the city and Mount Vernon, he added.
He is still being sought.
