Crime & Safety

Three People Found Shot Dead Inside Lafayette Ave. Apartment

Police discovered a man, a woman and a small boy with gunshot wounds to the head.

Police are investigating the deaths of three people, including a small child, found after neighbors complained of foul smells coming from their second-floor Bed-Stuy apartment.

Officers arrived at the apartment at 749 Lafayette Ave. between Tompkins and Throop avenues on Monday night following a 911 call at approximately 11:50 p.m.

Upon entering the apartment, officers discovered a man identified as David Sherrod, 44; Alma Cox, 51, and Cox's grandson, 7-year-old Jaquan Cox of Poughkeepsie, each with gunshot wounds to the head. A firearm was recovered at the scene.

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Detectives are still investigating whether the incident is a murder-suicide. 

A neighbor from the third floor of the building said she saw Sherrod, who is said to be Cox's boyfriend, walking into the building with the young boy earlier in the day prior to the shooting.

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"I can't say it was a murder-suicide because we don't know what happened in there, nobody can say," she said. "All I know is I heard three shots, but that's not unusual coming from this neighborhood."

Other neighbors, who were sitting around outside of the building adjacent to the crime scene described the woman who was murdered as "a very nice lady."

"We really didn't know too much about him. But we knew her, because she worked for our management office, and she was always very pleasant, she always tried to help you, whatever problems you were having," said the neighbor who did not want to be identified.

"We had a block party here on Sunday, and she had her grandson in town visiting, so he could have fun at the block party," she said. "Now, we can't believe they're all dead."

"And he killed her with the music on," said another neighbor. "We heard three gunshots, but he had the music going very loud, so nobody attributed the gunshots to be what it was...we just thought it was firecrackers for the Fourth of July."

There are no arrests at this time. The investigation is ongoing.


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