In the early hours of a Thursday morning in Manhattan, specifically on June 10, 2021, a dispute outside the upscale Dream Hotel in the Chelsea neighborhood turned fatal. Byron Morales, a 25-year-old man from Brooklyn, was shot and killed shortly after midnight. It is believed that Morales had just left the nearby Tao Downtown Restaurant when the altercation that led to his death occurred.
According to police, the incident did not have any connection to the hotel itself; it was simply the
location where the tragic event unfolded and where Morales was ultimately found wounded. He had sustained a gunshot wound to his torso. Emergency services rushed him to Lenox Hill Hospital, but his injuries proved to be too severe, and he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the shooting led police to identify a suspect. Witnesses at the scene described the gunman as a light-skinned Black man in his 20s. Following the shooting, the suspect reportedly fled the scene in a white Jeep Cherokee along with several other individuals.
A few days after the shooting, on June 14, 2021, the New York Police Department made an arrest in connection with the murder of Byron Morales. Robert Johnson, a 26-year-old resident of West Babylon, was taken into custody. He was subsequently charged with murder, assault, and criminal possession of a firearm. While an arrest has been made and charges have been filed, information regarding a trial or conviction has not been made publicly available. The motive for the shooting remains unclear, though investigators have considered the possibility of it being gang-related, noting that Morales was known to be an associate of the Outlaws gang.
