The following is an extended version of the story that appears in our latest print edition.

A Bronx mother is still seeking answers more than five weeks after her son, a Norwood resident, was shot and killed in Fordham Manor just seven days before Christmas, as reported. The mother of the victim alleges she was told at St. Barnabas Hospital her son was shot 17 times.

 

An NYPD spokesperson said officers responded to a 911 call regarding a man who had been shot inside 2650 Briggs Avenue on Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022, at 11.13 a.m. “Upon arrival, they discovered a 26-year-old male with multiple gunshot wounds throughout the body,” the spokesperson said.

Police said 26-year-old Angel “Pookie” Cuasant of Decatur Avenue in Norwood was inside a Grocery and Deli, located on the corner of 194^th Street and Briggs Avenue when he was shot and killed. They said EMS responded and transported the victim to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was pronounced deceased. They added that there were no arrests and the investigation remained ongoing.

 

On Dec. 27, 2022, representatives from the 52^nd Precinct tweeted two photos of an unidentified person sought for questioning in connection with the incident, writing, “Wanted for homicide inside of 2650 Briggs Avenue on 12/18/22 at approximately 11:10 a.m. Pictured individual did discharge a firearm several times, striking the victim, causing his demise. Seen him? Any info?”

The Tweet was removed the following day. When contacted initially by Norwood News at the end of December 2022, and asked why the Tweet in question was taken down, the NYPD press office did not provide a response.

 

Subsequently, Norwood News conducted an exclusive interview on Saturday, Jan. 21, with the victim’s heartbroken mother, whose name we are withholding amid fears for her safety and since the killer remains at large. She spoke of a possible love-triangle involving her son, an older woman and another man, and said she believes that situation may have led to her son being killed.

The victim’s mother also said she is afraid the case will go cold, and alleged that two NYPD employees at the 52nd Precinct are childhood friends of the woman she believes was involved in a relationship with her son.

 

The mom further alleged the woman in question was 45 years old in either 2019 or 2020, when her son, then 25, first met her. The mom recalled, “She would spend all his money and then throw him out.” The mother alleged her son, who she said had been on an outpatients program at one point after being released from prison, was arrested more than a dozen times, often after the woman would call him to her home and make allegations against him, including that she was in danger. She added, “But my son was in love with this woman.”

She also said she contacted the out-patient program organizers asking them to block her son’s phone from calls from the woman in question. Recalling the fateful day her son was shot, the mom then said, “From what I heard, because people who have seen the video [of the shooting]….they don’t want to show it to me… there was an argument because of her [the woman she believes was involved with her son], and the guy left and came back with a gun and shot my son 17 times.”

 

The mom also said she has her son’s phone now and alleged it contains text messages from the woman in question in which she said the woman allegedly asks her son to get her a bag of weed at the store in which he was shot. Because of these messages, the victim’s mother said she believes her son was set up. “Nobody shoots anybody 17 times in a random case, no!” she said. “They’ll shoot you once or twice because they’re scared; they run.” Norwood News has not seen the alleged text messages.

 

The victim’s mom also alleged that in additional text messages sent to her daughter, the woman in question allegedly denied initially having anything to do with the situation, but later allegedly backtracked on her position.

When the question arose as to why the Tweet containing the photos of the apparent suspect was posted by the 52nd Precinct and later removed, the mom said, “Exactly! And my question is why? And then, they had the nerve to say they never put it out!”

 

Norwood News later made several calls to the deli in question to ask about the allegations that weed was potentially being sold at the store. Our calls were never returned. We also visited the store on Jan. 21 and were told to come back when the owner was there. The man behind the counter on the day we visited, who was not the owner, said he didn’t know anything about the incident.

 

Meanwhile, the NYPD has had a patrol car stationed diagonally across the street from the deli for about two years, since another killing took place in the area. The patrol car was also seen at the same location on Saturday, Jan. 21.

Multiple sources, who requested their names be withheld for safety reasons, confirmed to Norwood News that the person in the photos released on Twitter by the NYPD which were later removed was an employee of Foodtown on East 204th Street in Norwood.

 

When contacted for comment about the incident, Noah Katz, president of PSK Supermarkets, which owns the East 204th Street Foodtown branch, told Norwood News on Jan. 9, “We have no comment about the incident you are investigating other than the following: ‘We are working with the NYPD as they request our cooperation’.”

 

Norwood News also had contact with a friend of the apparent suspect whose photo was shared on Twitter by the NYPD and later removed. She defended the apparent suspect, writing, “Apparently, he was being harassed in the store by a group of guys who would follow him. They hit him in the back of the head when he was working, so it had been happening for a while.”

She continued, “He is really great with the Spanish kids in the community.” Asked if the apparent suspect had ever reached out to police regarding the alleged harassment, the source replied, “He was never fond of cops. I was told he did ask the Foodtown security and management, but I believe the guys kept coming into the store. I don’t know what precautions Foodtown took.”

 

When asked about the alleged incidents of harassment involving the apparent employee of the store and apparent suspect, Katz said, “Our company has a strict harassment policy whereby any form of harassment in the workplace shall be promptly investigated and resolved.”

 

Meanwhile, the victim’s mother alleged her son’s friends saw the video of the shooting and knew who the shooter was. She said they alleged the apparent suspect reportedly went to work after the incident as if nothing happened, and that they later confronted him. Other sources who requested not to be identified told Norwood News police reportedly showed up at the supermarket after the apparent suspect had fled [reportedly because he feared for his safety due to allegedly being harassed.].

According to Cuasant’s mom, the family moved to Norwood in 1996, and her son attended M.S. 80, which explains why more than 500 people jammed the McKeon Funeral Home on Perry Avenue on Dec. 29 for his wake. Friends of Cuasant and of his family also collected money for his burial at St. Raymond’s Cemetery.

 

His mom said she still worries about the $6,000 funeral costs still owed. She said her daughter set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the funeral costs and that they did receive some money towards it but took the page down after the burial.

 

Norwood News followed up again with the NYPD press office for a comment on the deleted Tweet from late December about the apparent suspect. We also queried the allegations made by the victim’s mom regarding the police allegedly denying they posted any pictures on Twitter. We further asked if any suspects were currently sought or were in custody in connection to the fatal shooting.

In addition, we inquired about the allegations made by the victim’s mother’s that her son was shot 17 times, and whether there was any possible conflict of interest regarding detectives working the case.

 

On Jan. 10, we contacted commanding officer of the 52^nd Precinct, Deputy Inspector Jeremy Scheublin, about the Tweet and its subsequent removal. He said he had been made aware that someone had already queried this same point with the NYPD press office.

 

“Yes. Yeah, I have to find out exactly what the story is with that,” Scheublin said. “I know DCPI (NYPD press office) called [the 52nd Precinct] and asked. Somebody asked DCPI why it was taken down. I don’t know why it was taken down. I’ve got to look exactly when it was taken down. Was it not put back up?”

We said it was not, as far as we knew. As of press date, the Tweet had not been put back up. We also asked Scheublin about reports the apparent suspect reportedly worked in Foodtown in Norwood. Scheublin said he knew he was working in a grocery store on 204th Street. “I think they’re all there on (East) 204th Street without getting too much into it,” he said. “I would assume that they were known to each other on some level,” he added of the allegations a group were reportedly harassing the suspect.

 

“I had heard that they were looking for him after the homicide [before he was apparently identified as a suspect],” he said, adding, “We’re surely looking for him.”

 

On Jan. 26, the NYPD press office responded to our various inquiries on the case, writing, “There are no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing.” Separately, we reached out to the Office of the City’s Medical Examiner for details on the number of shots fired but did not receive an immediate response.

 

For now, the victim’s mom waits for answers, and justice.

 

Holding back tears, she said, “The type of person that my son was, my son was very humble, he was very shy,” she said. “He had trouble with nobody. At the time, there was nothing in his pocket when he got killed. All he had in it was his wallet and his keys, because my son never looked for trouble. The only thing that my son ever did wrong was that he took her side, and pushed us to the side, his family, because he was in love, you understand? But that’s the only thing that he ever had.. But he never… He was very respectful with everybody, and everybody would tell you that.”

POLICE ARE SEEN at the site of where a 26-year-old man was fatally shot at 2650 Briggs Avenue in the Fordham Manor section of The Bronx on Sunday morning, Dec. 18, 2022. Video courtesy of the Citizens’ App.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

 

All calls are strictly confidential.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.