Finest jump-start ’18 double-slay cold case in Bushwick
NYPD detectives are trying to revive the investigation into the unsolved murders of a Bushwick grandmother and her fifth-floor neighbor killed on the same day six years ago — hoping time may have loosened the grip on the neighborhood’s code of silence and that new suspects can be identified.
Ana Delvalle, 62, and Basil Gray, 54, lived across the hall from each other at 140 Moore St. in the drug-riddled Bushwick Houses — where they were both known to call cops if they saw dealing or other crimes.
Both were killed on the morning of Friday, May 11, 2018, and the mystery still haunts family and neighbors, who were likely too scared to talk at the time because of possible retaliation.
“People living in that area are always afraid to talk,” Detective Marisol Bonilla told The Post. “You have to go back home to the same people who you’re snitching and ratting out.”
Bonilla, of the NYPD’s 90th Precinct in Williamsburg, and Brooklyn North Homicide Squad Detective Armando Saitta are hoping enough time has gone by for the fear to have subsided.
“There may be people from the neighborhood who are not there anymore so maybe they will be a little more forthcoming now,” Bonilla said. “That’s our hope.”
The two veteran gumshoes have been interviewing everyone, including family members of the victims, reviewing the evidence and rehanging posters offering $20,000 from the city and $50,000 from the FBI for information that finally leads to an arrest.
Cops found casings of two different calibers on the scene, a 9mm and a .380, suggesting multiple shooters.
Police believe Gray was killed first and that Delvalle may have looked out into the hallway that she often mopped, a police source said.