In the summer of 2015, a burst of violence on a Bronx street cut short the life of 22-year-old Steven Maldonado. On the morning of July 8th, Maldonado was outside a discount store on Broadway in the Marble Hill section when a gunman opened fire, striking him in the chest. The brazen daylight attack sent Maldonado stumbling into the store before he collapsed.
Despite the efforts of a paramedic who rushed to perform CPR, Maldonado was pronounced dead at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Surveillance footage from the scene captured images of the suspected shooter, a man police described as being around 22 years old. In the days following the shooting, the New York Police Department released these images to the public in an appeal for information. The search for the suspect came to an end when 21-year-old Laquan Hamby, accompanied by his lawyer and mother, turned himself in to the 50th Precinct. Authorities indicated that Hamby was also a resident of the Marble Hill neighborhood.
Following his surrender, Laquan Hamby was arrested and charged in connection with Steven Maldonado's death. While the initial motive for the shooting was not made public, the legal process against Hamby moved forward. In May of 2019, a judgment was rendered against him in Bronx Supreme Court. An appeal of this judgment was later affirmed in October 2020.
