The family of the man shot dead during a drive-by shooting at a Bronx playground said they are looking for answers after the callous killing.
“We don’t know what happened,” said the victim’s relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “I just don’t know what to say. Nobody expected this to happen.”
Miguel Cruz, 47, was sitting inside the play area at Sedgwick Ave near Bridge Park at 6:31 p.m. on Friday when gunfire erupted, officers and witnesses said.
“He was sitting in the park and someone went by on a scooter and he was the only one shot,” said one resident who wished to remain anonymous.
One bullet struck Cruz in the head, police said. Doctors rushed to him St. Barnabas Hospital in cardiac arrest where he later died.
“It’s just shocking that something like that would happen right there in the playground, where children and families are, it makes no sense,” the woman said.
Sam Costanza for the New York Daily News
The scene on Sedgewick Ave. in the Bronx, where a man was fatally shot on August 2, 2024.
Cruz was “just visiting” the stage building, where he had previously lived, the woman said.
“He had his own life, he worked, he was a good son to his mother and good father, he took care of his children,” Cruz’s relative told the News.
The witness said she was sorry to hear of Cruz’s death, and remembered how he always greeted her in passing.
“He was nice, he would say hi to me when he passed by. He was a good people person,” she said. “I was shocked. I was sorry about that.”
“I just feel sorry for that man, he didn’t deserve to be killed like that,” she said.
Police initially searched for a white Mercedes with tinted windows, but investigators later believed the shooter may have been riding a scooter, police sources said.
No one had been arrested for the murder as of Saturday night.