A suspect arrested for the a fatal shooting outside a Bronx subway stop claims he only opened fire after being attacked with a stick for supposedly scratching the victim’s beloved motorcycle, the Daily News has learned.
Jose Kuilan, 47, is charged with murder, manslaughter and gun possession for allegedly shooting 50-year-old Trojan Hart multiple times during the clash under the Bronx Park East elevated subway station in Bronxdale about 6 a.m. Aug. 3. The victim participated in anti-gun violence motorcycle rides to different states, his ex-wife says.
But the suspect’s sister, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the victim became enraged after noticing a scratch on his motorcycle and stormed up to her brother, blaming him for the damage.
“(My brother) said, ‘I don’t know anything about your motorcycle. I didn’t do anything to it,’” Kuilan’s sister told the Daily News. “(Hart) said, ‘I’m going to act like you did and take it out on you.’”
Kuilan’s sister, who said she spoke to her brother before his arrest and got his account of what happened, says her brother only fired his gun after Hart whacked him with a stick on Sagamore St. near Birchall Ave.
“My brother has diabetes and weighs like 100 pounds. (Hart) should have known better,” she said. “My brother was a street guy. He had a gun on him. What he did was wrong — but it was self-defense.”
Trojan Hart (pictured) was fatally shot on Sagamore St. near Birchall Ave. in the Bronx.
Police sources said Kuilan told cops a story similar to what he told his sister about Hart attacking him first — but investigators have not been able to corroborate his account with surveillance video or witnesses.
“We want to apologize to the family of the victim for my brother’s actions,” Kuilan’s sister said. “Both families have now lost a family member.”
Kuilan was ordered held without bail during his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court last Tuesday.
The victim, a father of two who once served time in federal prison, was known in the community as Iron Man, his ex-wife said. The nickname was a nod to the superhero mask he often wore while riding his motorcycle for the Bikes Up, Guns Down movement, which aims to steer kids away from street violence and crime.
“He is a legend,” his ex-wife told the Daily News. “He rides with an Ironman mask and rides state to state.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate after Trojan Hart was fatally shot on Sagamore St. in the Bronx on Aug. 3. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
The victim was found guilty of conspiring to distribute narcotics from 2011 through 2015 while part of a Bronx drug gang known as the 213 Conspiracy, federal officials say. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2018 but his sentence was one of a raft later commuted by President Joe Biden during his final days in office, federal records show.
The victim’s ex-wife, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Damaris, slammed accused killer’s self-defense claim.
“I heard that Trojan smacked that guy and the guy came back (with the gun),” she said. “That can’t be self-defense if he shot him that many times. Trojan didn’t have a gun or weapons on him. For what happened, he did not deserve that.”
“How over a smack are you gonna kill someone?” she added. “He should be saying sorry to the family, to me, to his kids. Look at the situation he is in for doing that. That reckless action he did.”
Kuilan was arrested five-and-a-half hours after the shooting when, as he was driving a blue Toyota Camry, police stopped him for making a right turn onto Hunt Ave. from Bronxdale Ave. without signaling, just a few blocks from the still-fresh crime scene, police said.
While taking him into custody, cops allegedly found cocaine, heroin, drug paraphernalia and $2,7000 cash inside his car. In addition to the murder charges, Kuilan is charged with possession of narcotics with intent to sell.
Kulian, who lives in Morningside Heights, has eight prior arrests on his record, police said.
The victim had taken cover from the rain under the subway station’s elevated tracks for when he was shot, his ex-wife said. He died at the scene, slumped over his motorcycle. Seven 9mm shell casings were recovered, cops said.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Police investigate after Trojan Hart was fatally shot on Sagamore St. in the Bronx on Aug. 3. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
A jack-of-all-trades, Hart worked in construction and was a tattoo artist and a mechanic, his ex-wife said. Damaris was with Hart for 27 years before they separated about a year ago. She said he helped raise her children, in addition to his own two kids.
“I’m just very emotional. I love him very much,” she said. “For years he was a good stepfather, good friend, and a positive role model for the bike life.”
Hart made headlines in 2014 when he accused NYPD cops of beating him so violently at a Bronx stationhouse they nearly blinded him in one eye.
Damaris said she and Hart were hosting a birthday cookout at their Bronx home on E. 213th St. near Barnes Ave. when cops responding to a noise complaint showed up and confiscated their speaker. After confronting the officers, asking if they had a warrant, an argument erupted and ended with cops arresting them both.
“He had gold teeth on. He was in handcuffs and the cop wanted to take his gold teeth out and the cop was beating him in the back room,” Damaris said.
Hart was charged with assaulting a police officer after cops said he bit them while in handcuffs. Bronx prosecutors took his case all the way to a jury, which rejected the cops’ version of events and acquitted him, the Daily News reported at the time.
Hart sued the city and individual officers, and walked away with a $300,000 settlement, Damaris said.
Hart was nabbed for marijuana possession in 2007, according to the New York Times. His arrest came after an 18-year-old shooting suspect jumped from a second-floor window of a Bronx building, then shot and grazed two NYPD detectives as he tried, but failed, to evade arrest.
Cops later arrested Hart and two other men inside the apartment the suspect jumped from, which was described by officials as a “flophouse.”