Keondre Adams, 18, a Black/African American male from Staten Island, was killed on November 21, 2021 after a violent confrontation inside a neighborhood deli. Late that afternoon, police said a dispute erupted inside the store on Westervelt Avenue, and in the chaos Adams was shot in the chest. The gunfire ended as suddenly as it began, leaving customers and workers scrambling for safety while the shooter slipped away.
Adams was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center, but he did not survive his injuries.
In the hours after the shooting, investigators treated the case as a fast-moving homicide: a gunman had fired at close range inside a public business, then vanished into the early evening. Early reporting identified the location as What U Need Deli & Grill near Carroll Place in the St. George area, and relatives spoke about the shock of losing him in a place that was supposed to be ordinary and safe. As word spread through Staten Island, grief gathered around the picture of a young person still in the middle of becoming himself, and a family suddenly forced into the terrible work of explaining an absence that made no sense.
Those who knew Adams described him as bright, charismatic, and deeply tied to the people around him. His obituary remembered an “old soul” who had been academically gifted, placed in honors classes, and drawn to basketball and music, especially rapping and recording. In family recollections, he could be both serious and playful, someone who loved his relatives fiercely and left impressions that lingered long after a conversation ended. In the days after his death, that personal portrait stood in painful contrast to the stark police timeline of a dispute, a single shot, and a fatal ride to the hospital.
By early December 2021, authorities publicly tied the killing to a named suspect. Reporting identified Anthony Fonseca, 50, of New Brighton, as the man accused of shooting Adams inside the deli before fleeing the city. Police accounts in subsequent coverage said the shooting was viewed as retaliation for an earlier robbery, and that Fonseca traveled to Riviera Beach, Florida, where he was located on December 1, 2021. In mid-December, he was back in New York City to face the case, and a grand jury indictment was reported to have been filed earlier that month.
The arrest and charging details that followed were described in multiple reports as the case shifted from manhunt to prosecution. Fonseca was reported arrested and charged with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon, with one account noting the arrest time as 5:23 p.m. on Tuesday, December 14, 2021. At his arraignment in Staten Island Supreme Court, he was ordered held without bail, marking a hard line in the aftermath of the deli shooting: the grief remained, but now it had a defendant’s name attached to it. Public reporting in the materials reviewed did not provide a final resolution such as a trial verdict or sentencing outcome.
