Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Jan. 6 that a Bronx man from Norwood was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder and additional charges for fatally shooting a bodega clerk and wounding the store’s owner in the Mount Eden section of The Bronx in 2021.

 

In the context of the announcement, Clark said, “The defendant killed a bodega worker in a completely unprovoked act. He then shot the owner of the deli, who along with another employee subdued the defendant before he could harm others.”

 

Officials from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said the defendant, Tykwan McLeod, 49, last of Dekalb Avenue in Norwood, was sentenced on Monday to 40 years to life in prison and five years post-release supervision after being convicted by a jury of second-degree murder, attempted assault in the first degree, and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio.

 

According to the investigation, on Feb. 16, 2021, at around 8.40 p.m., the defendant entered K’s Convenient Deli at 8 East Mount Eden Avenue in the Mt. Eden section of The Bronx and immediately shot the store clerk, Donte Thomas, 33, in the face, killing him instantly.

 

The court heard that as Thomas fell, McLeod shot him twice, and as McLeod attempted to flee, the bodega’s owner grabbed him. Prosecutors said as he did so, McLeod shot the owner in the chest at point blank range. According to court records, the owner and another employee wrestled the gun away from McLeod, and an off-duty NYPD auxiliary officer then picked it up from the floor.

 

Bronx DA officials said the case was prosecuted by Karl Miller, homicide counsel, under the supervision of Burim Namani, deputy chief of the Homicide Bureau, and Christine Scaccia, chief of the Homicide Bureau, under the overall supervision of James Brennan, deputy chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, chief of the Trial Division.

 

Clark thanked Bronx DA video technician Stalin Crespo of the video unit for his work on the case. She also thanked NYPD Det. Curtis Cato and Sgt. Paul Neggersmith of the 44th Precinct, along with NYPD Officer Elmehdi Eddoubaji of the 19th Precinct and retired NYPD Det. Francis Orlando of the Bronx Homicide Detective Squad.