What to Know
- The city's first homicides of 2020 happened near Central Park and in the Bronx
- In one case, an NYC corrections employee allegedly killed his own uncle; no arrests have been made in the second case
- That case involves a 29-year-old man who was found shot to death in the Bronx River Houses in Soundview
Two men in New York City were shot and killed at the start of the new year and decade -- one of them allegedly by a Department of Corrections employee who shares the victim's last name, according to police.
Police say a woman found her 29-year-old boyfriend, identified by family as Rakeem Jennings, dead with gunshot wound to his neck and head Wednesday morning in the Bronx River Houses in Soundview.
Later in the evening, a 37-year-old man later identified as Steven Gadsden was shot in the chest near Central Park, at the corner of 107st Street and Manhattan Avenue. The NYPD said Thursday that Cardell Gadsden, a 30-year-old NYC Department of Corrections employee at Rikers, had been charged with murder in the death of Steven Gadsden. Officials say Cardell Gadsden is the victim's nephew. It wasn't clear if the accused killer had an attorney. An investigation into the circumstances of that killing is ongoing.
Jennings' family, meanwhile, says he was a construction worker who aspired to become a rapper.
"We will find out what happened soon enough. You know, god willing," Jennings' uncle told NBC New York. "May he rest in peace."
