Kaseem Stukes and the 2025 Castle Hill Houses Killings
Overview
Kaseem Stukes was identified by law-enforcement sources as the suspected gunman in a family murder-suicide that left four people dead in the Bronx, New York, on November 5, 2025. The violence occurred inside a fifth-floor apartment at the Castle Hill Houses, a New York City public-housing complex in the Castle Hill neighborhood. Authorities discovered Stukes, his mother, his daughter and his daughter’s boyfriend suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.
Investigators believed that the 44-year-old Stukes shot and killed the other three people before taking his own life. Although police publicly identified everyone found dead in the apartment, early reports noted that the New York Police Department had not formally declared Stukes to be the shooter. Law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation nevertheless identified him as the person believed responsible for the three killings.
The Morning of the Killings
The shooting took place during the morning of Wednesday, November 5, 2025. The family members were inside an apartment at the Castle Hill Houses when the gunfire occurred. Reports placed the deadly episode at approximately 9:45 a.m., although investigators continued working to establish the precise sequence of events.
Surveillance footage reportedly showed Stukes leaving the apartment briefly at approximately 8:10 a.m. He later returned to the residence. Reports also stated that he left a voicemail message for his son that morning, but the complete contents and significance of that message were not publicly disclosed.
The bodies were discovered after the mother of one of Stukes’s children became concerned and requested that someone check on the family. Police responding to the apartment found four people dead from apparent gunshot wounds. A firearm was reportedly recovered as investigators secured the residence and began examining the scene.
Victims
- Theresa Stukes, 75: Kaseem Stukes’s mother. She was killed by gunfire on November 5, 2025, inside her fifth-floor apartment at the Castle Hill Houses in the Bronx. Neighbors described her as a beloved and familiar resident who participated in celebrations, barbecues and other community activities.
- Kianna Stukes, 26: Kaseem Stukes’s daughter. She was fatally shot on November 5, 2025, inside the Castle Hill Houses apartment. She was found dead alongside her grandmother, boyfriend and father.
- Andrew Reynoso, 33: Kianna Stukes’s boyfriend. He was fatally shot inside the apartment on November 5, 2025. Reports identified him as the third homicide victim in the suspected family murder-suicide.
- Kaseem Stukes, 44: The suspected perpetrator. He was found dead from what investigators believed was a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside the same Castle Hill Houses apartment on November 5, 2025.
The Castle Hill Houses Crime Scene
The killings occurred in a residential apartment rather than a public space, leaving neighbors stunned as police officers and emergency personnel gathered at the housing complex. Investigators treated the apartment as a contained crime scene and did not initially indicate that another gunman was being sought. The circumstances led authorities to classify the incident as an apparent murder-suicide involving members of the same family and one additional victim closely connected to them.
Detectives examined the positioning of the bodies, the recovered firearm, surveillance recordings and communications involving Stukes. The investigation was intended to determine when each person was shot, whether an argument or confrontation preceded the violence and whether Stukes had communicated his intentions to anyone before the deaths.
No surviving witness was publicly identified as having seen the shootings inside the apartment. Consequently, much of the reconstruction depended on forensic evidence, building surveillance and the final movements and communications of those involved.
Theresa Stukes and the Community
Theresa Stukes was remembered as a respected longtime resident of the Castle Hill Houses. Neighbors reportedly referred to her as one of the building’s “Golden Girls,” a name used affectionately for a group of older women who were well known throughout the complex. Residents described her as supportive, generous and involved in neighborhood gatherings.
Her death brought a particularly strong response from those who had known her for years. Neighbors recalled that she offered advice, helped other residents and regularly took part in community celebrations. The revelation that she had been killed inside her own apartment, allegedly by her son, intensified the shock and grief surrounding the case.
Kaseem Stukes’s Background
Stukes had grown up in the Bronx and attended local schools, including Public School 36 and Junior High School 125. Childhood acquaintances remembered playing football and basketball with him and described him as someone who had once been sociable and energetic. He later worked in construction and, according to people who knew him, continued working after periods of incarceration.
Friends expressed disbelief that the man they remembered could have committed such an act. Some said they had noticed that he had experienced difficulties, but they did not expect him to kill members of his own family. Relatives and acquaintances offered different personal opinions about his mental condition, including suggestions that incarceration had left him increasingly suspicious or unstable. Those observations were personal accounts rather than an official medical diagnosis.
Previous Gun Case
At the time of the killings, Stukes was facing legal proceedings connected to an earlier weapons case. He had reportedly been arrested in May 2025 and charged with reckless endangerment and unlawful weapons possession arising from an incident that occurred in the Bronx in September 2024.
Prosecutors presented the earlier case to a grand jury, but the grand jury did not indict him on the charges. Court records reportedly showed that Stukes was scheduled to return to court on November 5, 2025—the same day that he, his mother, his daughter and her boyfriend were found dead.
Authorities did not immediately establish a direct connection between the pending court appearance and the killings. The timing became an important part of the investigation, however, because detectives needed to determine whether anxiety over the case, access to a firearm or another undisclosed event contributed to the violence.
Unclear Motive
No definitive motive for the killings was publicly established in the immediate aftermath. Police did not disclose evidence of a family dispute, financial disagreement or conflict involving Kianna Stukes or Andrew Reynoso. There was also no confirmed public explanation for why Theresa Stukes was targeted.
The deaths appeared to have occurred within a short period, but the exact order of the shootings was not immediately released. Investigators continued reviewing evidence for indications of planning, emotional distress or a confrontation inside the residence. Because Stukes died at the scene, detectives could not question him or obtain a direct explanation for the attack.
Investigation and Legal Outcome
The deaths of Theresa Stukes, Kianna Stukes and Andrew Reynoso were investigated as homicides. Kaseem Stukes’s death was believed to be a suicide. Final determinations regarding the causes and manners of death were the responsibility of the New York City medical examiner.
Because the suspected perpetrator died, no murder charges or criminal trial could follow. Detectives were instead responsible for completing an investigative record explaining, as far as the available evidence permitted, how the four people died and whether anyone else had participated in or encouraged the violence.
The Castle Hill Houses killings left three homicide victims and the suspected gunman dead, destroying several generations of one family in a single morning. The absence of a confirmed motive left relatives and neighbors struggling with unanswered questions about how an ordinary morning inside a familiar apartment became the scene of one of New York City’s most disturbing family killings of 2025.
