Bloody Weekend Mars Holy Week - Child Shot, Woman Stabbed

Senior Stabbed, Child Shot During ‘Holy Week’ Violence

Dried blood surrounds a hat, hooded jacket and sneakers of gunshot victim Stefon Barnes, 29, of Manhattan who was shot and killed in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday. -Photo by David Greene

By David Greene 

Bronx Voice 

April 1, 2024 

BRONX - Two men are dead, and a child and elderly woman are recovering after a series of violent, unrelated incidents that took place during ‘Holy Week,’ between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, cops said.

Police officers from the 52^nd Precinct were called to East Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse at 1:43 p.m. on Saturday, March 30, after a 2-year-old child walking along the crowded thoroughfare with his parents, when he was grazed in the back by an errant bullet.

As hundreds strolled by, police set up two separate crime scenes, one outside of the Capital One Bank at 151 East Fordham Road and a second across the street outside of the T.D. Bank at 148 East Fordham Road. Police have made no arrests and continue to investigate.

Having just attended the funeral for NYPD Police Officer Jonathan Diller, Mayor Eric Adams arrived on East Fordham Road and was briefed on the incident and the child’s condition by the top police officials at the scene.

Adams speaking to the first arriving journalists at the scene, stated, “When you’re coming from a police funeral when a gun took the life of a young police officer, now you’re hearing of a shooting like this tells you, the city, why we are just so committed to taking illegal guns off the street.”

Several hours later and just four blocks away, officers from the 46^th Precinct were called to another shooting at East 187 Street and Tiebout Avenue. Police officials say at 8:53 p.m. on March 30, a 25-year-old man suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and a 23-year-old man with gunshot wounds to the stomach and buttocks.

Both victims were transported to St. Barnabas Hospital. 

Police say the 25-year-old victim did not survive. Police identified the victim as Frankelis Tavarez of East 194 Street. Police had made no arrests and continue to investigate.

At 4:26 a.m. on East Sunday, March 31, cops in the 48^th Precinct were called to the Gourmet Deli at 851 East Tremont Avenue where a 29-year-old man was shot in the right leg. By the blood-soaked bike lane that was still visible later that evening, the man clearly lost a lot of blood and did not survive.

Police would later identify the victim as 29-year-old Stefon Barnes, 29, of Manhattan. No arrests in the case have been made. The gunman reportedly fled the scene on a bike or moped.

Later that morning as many families were going to church, officers in the 46^th Precinct were called to a building at Morris Avenue and East 181 Street where, police say, a 75-year-old female was followed into a building and stabbed several times in the head inside the elevator.

Detectives would later arrest and charge Edwin Rios, 38, of Waters Place, who is now facing a charge of attempted murder.