{"id":201001,"date":"2026-04-17T18:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201001\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T18:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T18:16:42","slug":"bronx-78-year-old-killed-by-stray-bullet-was-a-great-grandfather-out-at-an-evening-barbecue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/201001\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx 78-year-old killed by stray bullet was a great-grandfather out at an evening barbecue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 78-year-old killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx was a\u00a0great-grandfather out enjoying a warm spring evening at a barbecue just a few paces from his Bronx NYCHA apartment, police<\/a> and heartbroken relatives said Friday.<\/p>\n

Edgar Spence, lovingly nicknamed \u201cPop\u201d and \u201cGP\u201d by his relatives,\u00a0 was the second New Yorker to be killed by a stray bullet in the city this month, police said. On April 1, 7-month-old Kaori Patterson-Moore died<\/a> after she was hit by a stray bullet while in her stroller in East Williamsburg.<\/p>\n

The retired plumber was hanging out in a small park and playground behind his building on Alexander Ave. near E. 135th St., which is part of NYCHA\u2019s Mitchel Houses<\/a> in Mott Haven at about 10:30 p.m. when shots were fired nearby, cops said.<\/p>\n

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, Spence\u2019s neighbors were holding a barbecue when Spence was shot, his granddaughter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was sitting probably on the bench, maybe his scooter. I\u2019m not sure exactly what he was doing but he was at like a cookout you know?\u201d said his granddaughter, who wished not to be named. \u201cHe would just hang out when the weather was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stray bullet hit Spence in the torso. EMS raced the senior to Lincoln Hospital, but he couldn\u2019t be saved.<\/p>\n

Spence lived in the Mitchel Houses with his daughter, just a few feet from where he was shot, cops said. He had several grandchildren and a number of great-grandchildren as well, relatives said.<\/p>\n

The victim\u2019s grandson was at the housing project when he and his friend heard the shots.<\/p>\n

When they ran over, he realized that his grandfather had been hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey went up to him in the park when they were resuscitating him,\u201d the granddaughter said.\u00a0\u201cA friend of mine gave me a call (about it) from my brother\u2019s phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was devastated,\u201d she said, recalling the harrowing call. \u201cI was even more devastated when the detective declared he didn\u2019t make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear what sparked the shooting that led to Spence\u2019s death. No other injuries were reported.<\/p>\n

Spence grew up in the Bronx. His wife died four years ago, relatives said.<\/p>\n

While he was in good health, there was no way he could have survived a shooting at his age, his granddaughter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great person,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was always playing cards, and just a great role model for everybody around. \u201c(He was) happy, outgoing, loving, caring. Everybody loved him.\u201d<\/p>\n

An NYPD spokesman confirmed that Spence was an \u201cunintended target\u201d<\/a> of the gunman, who ran off and remained on the loose Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no words for the person that did this,\u201d his granddaughter said about the shooter.<\/p>\n

The park was filled with people, including several children when the gunman opened fire, the granddaughter was told.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a park,\u201d she said. \u201cYou think that the park is safe to take your children on a nice night, you know let them run around, get tired before bed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cops were scouring surveillance footage in the area as they tracked the shooter down.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month in Brooklyn, 7-month-old Kaori was shot by a stray bullet during a botched gang hit as her family ran errands near the corner of Moore and Humboldt Sts. in East Williamsburg. The shot was allegedly fired by Amuri Greene as he rode on the back of a passing moped driven by Matthew Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

Greene, 21, broke his leg when the escaping moped crashed and was arrested. Rodriguez, 18, was arrested a few days later in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Cops believe Greene was aiming at Kaori\u2019s father, but Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez theories about Greene\u2019s motive, which may have involved a gang rivalry and drill rap lyrics,\u00a0are contuning to evolve.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 78-year-old killed by a stray bullet in the Bronx was a\u00a0great-grandfather out enjoying a warm spring evening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-201001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-crime","20":"tag-sub-county-region","21":"tag-the-bronx","22":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","23":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}