The Stories

Suspected Drug Dealer Dies in Police Custody
A man who reportedly struggled with police has died after officials say he ingested a substance believed to be cocaine.

According to police officials, investigators from an undercover narcotics unit observed a suspected drug deal outside of Jerome Avenue Convenience Store, located at 3598 Jerome Ave., at 10 p.m., on Wednesday, June 19.

Police say the man swallowed a walnut size amount of a white substance, believed to be cocaine, when the man stopped breathing. The man was rushed to North Central Bronx Hospital where he died a short time later.

Police identified the man as Jose Muniz, 52, who police say had been arrested more than 30 times.

“We believe (Muniz) took a golf ball-sized packet of cocaine and put it into his mouth,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, according to the Daily News. “There was a struggle.”

Members of the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau continue to investigate Muniz’s death.
–David Greene

In other Bronx crime-related news:

— Our story on the 64-year-old woman found beaten to death in her apartment on Perry Avenue in Norwood.

— Jonathan Sanchez, 23, a “well-liked” barber who recently moved to the Foxhurst neighborhood, was found with a bullet wound in his head last night inside his apartment on Hoe Ave., the Daily News reports.

— A Bronx elementary school teacher was arrested and charged with raping one of his 10-year-old students, the NY Times reports.

— Bronx Council member Maria del Carmen Arroyo called the city’s chief medical examiner “inept” at a City Council hearing, following a series of high-profile blunders, including dropping the dead body of a Woodlawn-area hit-and-run victim into a van alongside a bag of recyclable bottles, the Daily News reports.

The Stats

Find the latest crime statistics for your Bronx precinct here: 40th, 41st, 42nd , 43rd, 44th, 45th, 46th, 47th, 48th, 49th, 50th.

52nd Precinct Crime Statistic Through June 16