Officers Shoot an Armed Man Who Opened Fire on Them Outside a Bronx Deli, Police Say
Police say Victor Soto, 49, pointed a gun at customers inside a deli on Bainbridge Avenue, then pointed it at two officers and fired as he walked north. An officer shot him in the chest and leg; he is in stable condition, and no officer or customer was hit.
A Monday afternoon inside a Bronx deli ended in a gun battle on the sidewalk outside it. Police say a 49-year-old man, identified by the NYPD as Victor Soto, pulled out a gun inside the Sammy Gourmet Deli on Bainbridge Avenue at East 194th Street shortly after 3:20 p.m., racked the weapon and pointed it at customers, who ducked for cover, before walking out and heading north.
Assistant Chief Aneudy Castillo of Patrol Borough Bronx North laid out the department's account at a press conference. Two uniformed officers in an NYPD vehicle saw the man slam the firearm into the deli's glass window, Castillo said, and ordered him to drop the weapon. Instead, police say, he pointed the gun directly at the officers and opened fire as he continued walking northbound. The Daily News reported that the man's shots went wide and that officers returned fire, striking him in the chest and leg.
Soto was taken to a hospital, where police said he is in stable condition and expected to survive. No officer was struck, and police reported no customers injured in the deli. Castillo said Soto has eight prior arrests, including for assault and criminal possession of a firearm.
The shooting is the kind of incident this desk covers from officials or not at all: every fact in this file comes from the department's own on-the-record account as reported Monday by two outlets. What police have not yet released — the recovery of the weapon, the charges Soto will face, and any body-camera timeline — the desk does not invent, and this story will be updated when the department releases them.
