Ikenna Taylor, a 37-year-old male resident of the Bronx, New York, had his life tragically cut short on the night of November 23, 2016. He was looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with his family, but those plans were violently disrupted when he was shot multiple times near his home. The shooting occurred in the Morrisania section of the Bronx, behind an apartment building at 955 Cauldwell Ave., near East 163rd Street.
This incident was part of a night marked by gun violence in the city.
The community reacted with outrage and grief to what was described as a senseless act of violence. Friends and family gathered for vigils and memorials to honor Ikenna, remembering him as a kind and caring individual. The case also brought attention to the persistent issue of gun violence in the Bronx, leading to calls from the community for more to be done to address the root causes of such crimes. For a time, the investigation into his death struggled to make significant headway due to a lack of witnesses and concrete evidence, leaving his family waiting for justice.
A break in the case came in December of 2016 when police arrested a suspect. Shamon Dilligard, a 34-year-old who lived about a block away from Taylor on East 163rd Street, was taken into custody. Investigators charged Dilligard with second-degree murder for the fatal shooting of his neighbor. While an arrest was made, the motive for the shooting was not immediately made public by the authorities.
