Death caught up with poker player
Fatally shot at Harlem gambling den, vic nearly died in stabbing last year
A 40-year-old man was fatally shot during a poker game in a Harlem apartment that doubles as a gambling parlor, police said Wednesday.
Bryan Cummings was blasted in the torso in a first-floor apartment at the building on W. 137th St. near Malcolm X Blvd. about 2 a.m. on Tuesday, cops said.
Medics rushed him to Harlem Hospital, where doctors initially thought he would survive. But he took a turn for the worse and died Tuesday afternoon.
The victim — who was nearly stabbed to death last year, according to a friend — lived about a mile from where he was shot, police said.
Cummings, described by cops as a known Bloods member, was playing a hand of poker when he was shot, a police source said. It’s believed he was attacked during a disagreement at the poker table, the source said.
“He did like to gamble, he did that all the time,” said a close friend of the victim who did not want to be identified. “He’s been doing it for years.”
There were five other men in the gambling den, all in their 40s and 50s, cops said. A few admitted to hearing the shot but claimed they did not know what the argument was about or who fired the round.
“We just trying to figure all this out, it’s just crazy. It doesn’t make any sense,” the close friend said. “I can’t wrap my head around anyone who would want to hurt him.”
It was the second time in a year that Cummings, a Bronx native, was seriously wounded, according to the friend.
“I was just devastated, because this time last year someone almost killed him,” she said. “Last year he was at a club and he got into a fight and he was stabbed, I think ... in the neck.”
Police are still looking for the shooter. “They don’t know what they did to us, taking him away,” said the devastated woman. “Everyone loved Bryan, no matter where he went.”
Cummings had a 20-year-old son and made most of his money gambling, according to the devastated woman.
“The whole family is devastated,” she said of Cummings’ death.
On Wednesday, tributes for the man flooded social media as word of his death spread.“I thought you were invincible Bryan,” wrote Jaynai Cummings, who referred to the man as her brother. “So much has come up against you and every time someone or something thought it had the power to hurt you. It was not supposed to end like this for us B.”
Underneath the tribute were photos of the woman with Cummings, including one of them as children posing in front of a Christmas tree.
“How much can 1 heart take?” another user posted in response to the death. “I’m gonna mourn you until I join you.”
A single 9-mm. shell casing was recovered from the apartment, cops said.
The 32nd Precinct, which covers the northeastern portion of Harlem, had seen no homicide victims as of Feb. 19, according to the most recent NYPD data. By the same time last year, three people had been killed in the precinct.
Citywide, 49 people have been the victim of a homicide, according to police. The figure is a downtick from the same time period last year, which saw 56 people killed.
Across the city, 149 people have been shot this year through Feb. 19, compared with 173 victims by this time last year, a 14% drop.