‘NOTHING BAD ABOUT HIM’
Friends laud hip-hopper shot dead in front of cops in Bx.
Candles were strewn across a Bronx street on Sunday in a neighborhood’s act of love for a young man gunned down in front of police officers in a wild daylight shooting.
Gabriel Casso, 21, was running away from gunmen and toward police officers when he was shot multiple times in the torso Saturday at the corner of E. 166th St and Findlay Ave., in Concourse Village, sources said.
“He was never a troublemaker as far as I knew,” said friend Andre Anderson, 35, who was among those who showed up to pay respects. “He just minded his business.”
Family and friends were baffled over why the young hip-hop artist and dad, also known as “Gee Six,” was shot by two gunmen in broad daylight at a busy intersection.
“Yesterday was a typical Saturday in the neighborhood. It was a nice day, but I never expected this to happen,” Anderson said of the
mayhem. “I just seen it yesterday — it’s a war zone.”
Uniformed cops, making routine rounds in an unmarked vehicle, heard the gunshots and saw two men leveling firearms and blasting into a crowd of people about 6:20 p.m. Saturday.
The three cops, a lieutenant and two officers, confronted the two gunmen and open fired, striking one of them in the left arm,
according to police.
The gunman also shot a bystander in the torso. First responders rushed that man, in his 50s, to Lincoln Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery Saturday night and was in critical condition, sources said.
Casso, who lived only a block from the shooting scene, was also taken to Lincoln Hospital, but he died on arrival, sources said.
“Somebody just came up to him and shot him,” said the mother of Casso’s longtime girlfriend, who didn’t give her name. “He was a really good kid. He was an upcoming rapper.”
Casso had been with his girlfriend since their teenage years; they share an adored 1-year-old daughter.
“She’s down the block,” the woman said of Casso’s girlfriend, tearing up. “She doesn’t want to come over here because his blood is all over.”
At the scene of the bloodshed, community members Sunday played the young artist’s hip-hop tracks while mourners trickled over to light candles.
“There ain’t nothing bad about him,” said a longtime Casso friend who gave only her first name, Vel.
“I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t deserve this.”
His mother, who identified herself as Xiomara, shared her photos of her son with the Daily News but was at a loss for words, saying she needed to wait until she had “more strength” to talk about the fatal shooting.
One gunman, Kejuan Delaney, 22, was shot in the left arm by responding officers and was transported to Lincoln Hospital, where he is expected to survive, sources said. The second gunman, Hassan Maxwell, 32, was arrested without incident, according to sources.
Both are charged with murder. Both guns were recovered under a van after the shooters tried to hide them.
No police officers were injured. A deli worker, Mike Hernandez, 26, said he dropped to the floor when he heard the gunshots, something he is all too familiar with after living in the neighborhood.
“Trust me — it was a lot of shots. It was a lot of shots,” Hernandez said. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen stuff like this before. It’s nothing new.”