Police arrested a man on murder charges for fatally shooting a 23-year-old in the Bronx on Wednesday morning.
NYPD officers slapped cuffs on 27-year-old Fili Nunez Rodriguez on Thursday morning, accusing him of killing Cleveland Smith in the Mount Hope section of the Bronx.
The suspect was charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon, and reckless endangerment, according to a Police Department spokesperson.
First responders arrived at the scene of the shooting near 251 E. Tremont Ave. at around 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 8, where they found the 35-year-old victim with a gunshot wound to his torso. Paramedics rushed the bloodied man to Saint Barnabas Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
The suspect had fled before police arrived, which sparked a 24-hour manhunt to find the shooter — eventually leading to Nunez Rodriguez’s arrest.
Police had initially arrested a 26-year-old man in connection with the shooting, and charged him with criminal possession of a weapon, but hours later pinned the murder on Nunez Rodriguez.
Authorities did not reveal the nature of the relationship between the two arrested individuals, or a suspected motive for the shooting.
Nunez Rodriguez, whose last known address is in Washington Heights, was arrested in the 46th Police Precinct, near where the shooting took place.
Police recorded 999 victims of gun violence on the streets of the five boroughs between Jan. 1 and Nov. 5 of this year, according to the most recent most recent NYPD data, with 340 people shot in the Bronx during that time.
