In what has been described as a brutal home invasion, 46-year-old Alafia Rodriguez and his 33-year-old girlfriend, Ana DeSousa, were fatally shot inside their Mariners Harbor, Staten Island residence on May 11, 2020. At the time of her death, DeSousa was pregnant with the couple's second child.
The violence unfolded at their Grandview Avenue home, where another woman, aged 43, was also shot and critically injured.
Miraculously, Rodriguez and DeSousa's young daughter, who was nearly two years old, was found unharmed inside the house. Police responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired and apprehended a suspect, 45-year-old Philip Moreno, as he was attempting to leave the premises.
Investigators believe the motive for the killings stemmed from a long-standing feud between Moreno and Rodriguez. It is alleged that Moreno held a grudge against Rodriguez, accusing him of being an informant in a previous drug-related case that resulted in Moreno's imprisonment for over a decade. Friends and neighbors indicated that Moreno had been openly threatening to harm Rodriguez.
Moreno, who was on parole at the time of the incident for a prior murder conviction from 1992, was found in possession of a semi-automatic firearm when he was arrested. He was subsequently charged with three counts of murder, which included the death of the unborn child, as well as attempted murder, assault, and weapons possession. The gun used in the commission of the crimes was recovered at the scene.
