Bronx woman tried to save fiancé who died in her arms after being shot by neighbor in senseless argument: ‘That was my soulmate’ (EXCLUSIVE)

·4 min read

A Bronx man turned himself in Monday for the fatal shooting of his neighbor, a young father who died in his fiancée’s arms last month as she tried desperately to save him.

Tavaree Hyatt, 31, surrendered to police at the 47th Precinct stationhouse with his lawyer and was charged with the murder, manslaughter and unlawful weapon possessions for the death of Aboubacar Drame, 32, on April 18 just before 11 p.m.

Drame, a father of kids ages 2, 8 and 15, who worked for NYCHA, was slain — shot in the head and shoulder — in front of his two-family home on Hill Ave. in Wakefield across the street from his alleged killer.

Police could not say what motivated the shocking murder but the victim’s fiancée Tiffany Gavin, 34, who is the mother of two of Drame’s children, said that she knew the killer lived nearby.

She recalled the terrifying night to the Daily News, saying Drame was coming home from a night of heavy drinking at his friend’s place and perhaps had done something to offend his two armed attackers.

“I heard the commotion, I looked out. I gotta get up. I had no shirt on, no bra, no nothing. I seen this one guy and another guy and I see him pushing him like, ‘What you doing? Get the F out of here’. I’m here [because] I tried to put something on to stop the commotion,” she said.

“Lucky that I didn’t because it could’ve went [the other] way, too, and my kids wouldn’t have two parents.”

Footage shared with The News shows two men approach Drame, who is seated on his front steps. The three men start to quarrel – pushing and shoving — then the two assailants pull firearms.

One struck Drame, an immigrant from Guinea, with a handgun, and the other opened fire, hitting Drame in the left arm and the head. Gavin can then be heard screaming off-camera. The pair walked away.

Gavin rushed to try to save her partner, but the bullet had done its damage.

“I couldn’t do CPR because I couldn’t breathe in his mouth because the blood was coming,” she said. “I was screaming like, ‘No! He’s not like that! Why?’ and they just walked off like it was nothing.”

Her sister said that his daughter saw the altercation from her window.

“It happened right in front of their doorstep. Mind you, his daughter is 8,” said Tiffany’s sister, Tanya Gavin, 33. “She saw them when he was fighting. She saw them fighting her father, this is before the shots even went off. As she looked out, she sees that, ‘It’s Dad! It’s Daddy!’ That’s when the shots went off. He didn’t get down until the headshot happened.”

Police have no information on what sparked the dispute.

Drame emigrated to New York from Guinea in 2012, Tiffany Gavin said, and they met a few months later.

“What attracted me to him was his smile,” she said.

He laughed and told her, “You have a beautiful smile yourself,’” she recalled. “That was love at first sight.”

Drame worked as a caretaker for the city’s public housing authority since 2021.

“He was a hard-working person. He never stopped grinding. He was down for everything with me, to protect me with everything. He graduated college, as a technical engineer. He just wanted his family comfortable. He was getting there. He was a hustler. That’s why I called him ‘City Boy’. He had that swag.”

Drame’s mother died when he was young, and he was dedicated to his new family having stability and peace of mind.

“He wanted so many things he wanted to accomplish for himself, and especially for his kids,” Gavin said. “He wanted them to have what he didn’t have..”

She said that since his death, the family has lived in fear.

“There is so much madness outside,” Gavin said. “How can I protect my kids where they were being raised at? The city we think everything is safe, but it isn’t safe. .”

Gavin is still reeling from the loss of her live-in boyfriend and is yet to return home to the scene of the crime out of fear of his murderers.

“I can’t believe he’s gone,” she said. “We was really connected. That was my soulmate. We helped each other through struggles. I can’t ever get that back.”