On the evening of December 7, 2025, a violent incident occurred in the Soundview section of the Bronx, claiming the life of a 38-year-old man named Gregory Stewart. The shooting took place shortly after 9:00 p.m. inside the Sotomayor Houses, a public housing complex located at 1744 Watson Avenue. Officers from the 43rd Precinct and Police Service Area 8 responded to a 911 call reporting a person shot within one of the building's stairwells.
Upon their arrival, law enforcement discovered Stewart lying in the stairwell with a gunshot wound to his head. Emergency medical services rushed him to NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi, where he was pronounced dead.
The death of Stewart, a resident of the Wakefield neighborhood who lived more than four miles away from the scene on Barnes Avenue, marked the end of a notable period of relative peace for New York City. Prior to this homicide, the city had recorded a 12-day streak without a murder, a record-tying span that had not been achieved since 2015. The streak had begun on November 25 and was highlighted by city officials as a sign of progress in combating violent crime, but the Sunday night shooting brought that chapter to a close.
Following an investigation into the shooting, police identified and apprehended a suspect. Sean Grant, a 28-year-old resident of the Sotomayor Houses, was taken into custody as a person of interest and subsequently arrested. Authorities charged Grant with murder, manslaughter, and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with Stewart's death. While the suspect lived in the building where the shooting occurred, investigators noted that the victim did not reside there, and the specific motive for Stewart's presence at the complex or the circumstances leading to the confrontation remained unclear at the time of the arrest.
