Suspect nabbed for firing stray shot that killed bystander in Bronx deli mugging

Sheetal Banchariya, Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News
Updated ·2 min read
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A suspect has been nabbed for firing the stray bullet that killed a 29-year-old party promoter during a caught-on-video mugging in a Bronx deli early Easter morning, police said Wednesday.

Shward Bee, 31, was arrested in the Bronx early Wednesday and charged with murder, robbery and weapons possession in the slaying of Stefon Barnes in the Tremont Gourmet Deli in East Tremont about 4:20 a.m. on March 31.

The arrest did little to dull the pain of the victim’s family over the party promoter’s death.

“It’s not a happy occasion. It does not change the facts,” Martin Barnes, Stefon’s father, told the Daily News. “It does not change anything.”.

When an Easter party Stefon Barnes was hosting wrapped up he headed to the deli on on E. Tremont Ave. near Marmion Ave. to order breakfast. While looking over a rack of chips, he was shot in the leg by the gunman, who was trying to hold up another customer at the deli, surveillance video obtained by The News shows.

Patrons in the deli, including Barnes, seemed to be unaware of the mugging. A group of young people, one wearing bunny ears, danced as they filmed a cell phone video.

Others waited for food while some watched the young people dancing. But the mugging caught the eye of the employee behind the counter, who pointed for a co-worker off camera to take a look.

As the mugging escalated, another person stormed into the deli in an apparent attempt to help the man being robbed.

The two men struggled over the mugger’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 Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a recent 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 is seen stumbling behind a car while customers and the people involved in the mugging run off.

Barnes lost a “tremendous” amount of blood and could not be saved, Kenny said.

Police released surveillance images of a man who they believe shot and killed a 29-year-old man in a Bronx deli. (NYPD)Police released a photo of Bee and received numerous Crime Stoppers tips that led them to Mount Vernon in Westchester County, where he had been arrested five previous times for robbery, cops said.