In the early evening of January 7, 2019, a burst of gunfire shattered the cold air in the West Farms section of the Bronx, leaving 38-year-old Jerodd Watkins, a Black male, dead. Watkins was inside his GMC SUV outside the Murphy Consolidation Houses on East 178th Street when an assailant fired multiple shots into the driver's side window at approximately 7:20 p.m. The targeted attack left Watkins with a fatal gunshot wound to the head, and he was pronounced dead at St.
Barnabas Hospital shortly thereafter.
The investigation into Watkins' death quickly focused on his own violent past, which was deeply intertwined with the very building where he was killed. In 2004, Watkins was a suspect in the strangulation murders of two women, Jeanine Faulmino and Diana Almestica, whose bodies were found in a stairwell of the same housing complex. He was charged with their murders in 2005 and ultimately accepted a plea deal in 2009 for attempted manslaughter, leading to his release on parole in 2010. His criminal activities continued after his release, including a federal conviction for crack dealing in 2012 and an arrest for menacing his mother-in-law with a firearm in 2018.
Months after Jerodd Watkins was murdered, authorities made an arrest in connection with his death. In May 2019, the New York Police Department charged 38-year-old Tony Thames with murder, manslaughter, and criminal use of a firearm. While the specific motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, law enforcement officials believe it was linked to Watkins' extensive criminal history and the numerous adversaries he had made over the years. The arrest of Thames brought a potential resolution to the cycle of violence that had long surrounded Jerodd Watkins.
