Bryan Cummings, a 40-year-old Black man, was killed in the early hours of February 28, 2023, after gunfire erupted inside a first-floor apartment in Harlem. Just before 2:30 a.m., police were sent to 114 West 137th Street, in the stretch between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Malcolm X Boulevard, where they found him suffering from a gunshot wound to his torso.
In the dim, late-night quiet of the block, the urgency of flashing lights and rushing footsteps quickly replaced the stillness as officers and emergency medical crews converged on the building.
Outside, an array of police vehicles gathered in the winter weather while first responders moved him to an ambulance. He was taken to NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem in critical condition, but he did not survive. Investigators classified the shooting as a homicide, and in the immediate aftermath, authorities said they were still trying to piece together what led to the fatal moment inside the apartment.
In the days following the killing, police reported no arrests and offered no publicly identified suspect or description of who fired the shot. The case remained under investigation, with detectives working to reconstruct the events leading up to the shooting and to identify anyone who may have been present or aware of what happened. Police urged anyone with information to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS with a separate Spanish-language line at 1-888-57-PISTA and also noted that tips could be submitted through the Crime Stoppers website or via @NYPDTips on social media.
