Footage the New York Post obtained showed the moment a man gunned down a Bronx deli patron.
“The 14-second surveillance clip from the Friday afternoon ambush inside the B.H. Gourmet Deli on Bainbridge Avenue in Fordham Manor shows the victim, 21-year-old “Law & Order” extra Jayquan Lewis, among at least five people in the bodega as he waited to buy a bottle of Poland Spring water,” the outlet reported Saturday.
One customer exited the store when a man stepped forward from the back and appeared to shoot at Lewis, who fell to the floor.
He was reportedly hit three times in the chest, three times in his arm, and once in his stomach.
A high-ranking police source claimed Lewis was killed due to a disagreement on social media and may have had gang ties, which police are investigating.
According to Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College and former New York Police Department (NYPD) sergeant, the incident appeared to be “personal.”
“I have no doubt that (the victim) was targeted. The guy standing next to him could’ve easily been killed too, but wasn’t,” he commented.
Lewis’ mother, Marisol Sanchez, denied he was connected to a gang. However, she said she worried about his safety and told him, “I don’t want you on the street” before he left to buy a drink that day.
The Post report continued:
Sanchez, 46, said her son, who was known as JJ and was one of five siblings who “loved acting” and wanted to study nursing, did not have enemies. His mom said he was an extra on Law & Order, and Lewis also appeared in the 2019 movie “Joyland,” according to IMDB. Sanchez said he appeared in 2013 the movie “The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete” and the actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje even asked her son for his autograph telling him “I know you’re going to make it one day.”
Sanchez told the New York Daily News she dedicated her life to protecting her children.
“It feels like a slap in the face,” she explained, adding, “It feels like I’m in a nightmare and I just can’t wake up.”
Now, the mother is calling for more police officers in her neighborhood, according to the Post.
“All that funding stuff with the cops, defund the police,” she noted. “After that we only see them when there’s an emergency. Before that, they were all here, all the time. Now you never see them unless something bad is happening.”
There were no arrests made as of Sunday, authorities said.