Career criminal nabbed for killing 16-year-old Bronx boy in gang-related slaying
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A 21-year-old man has been arrested for gunning down a Bronx teen in a gang-related slaying that led Police Commissioner Dermot Shea to lament the victim’s live-by-the-gun, die-by-the-gun lifestyle.
Detectives identified Xavier Rosado as the killer of 16-year-old Nisayah Sanchez shortly after the Sept. 29 shooting on E. 187th St. in Crotona, a police source said.
On Friday, officers spotted Rosado on E. 178th St. and Arthur Ave. and took him into custody. Rosado asked for a lawyer and refused to talk, but cops matched DNA from a cigarette he discarded just before his arrest to evidence found at the scene, said the source.
In an appearance on PIX 11 a day after Nisayah’s slaying, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the teen had a criminal record “as long as my arm” — and railed against the teen’s poor life choices.
“Look at this child — and he’s a child,” Shea said. “He’s 16 years old and he’s arrested for a gun weeks before. Once before that he was arrested for a gun. A month before that he was arrested for a gun.”
Three weeks before his death, Nisayah was busted for gun possession after he was seen with a .38-caliber pistol sticking out of his waistband at Park Ave. and E. 181st St., just a few blocks from where he was killed, police said.
Shea wondered how a 16-year-old could rack up three gun arrests in such a short time. “And I’m not talking about the times he was arrested for slashing people with a machete and with a dagger,” the commissioner said.
On the day of the shooting, Nisayah and a 23-year-old man were standing near Clinton Ave. about 12:50 p.m. when two men exited a gray Honda Accord and opened fire, hitting them multiple times, before speeding off.
EMS rushed Nisayah to St. Barnabas Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
The 23-year-old victim showed up at St. Barnabas a short time later with gunshot wounds to his left arm and right foot, police said.
Nisayah was a member of the Rey Way crew, which is affiliated with the Crips, according to a police source. He had a dozen arrests on his record on charges including weapon possession, assault, grand larceny, criminal mischief and unauthorized use of a vehicle, the source said.
It was not immediately clear what gang Rosado is affiliated with.
Detectives charged Rosado with murder, attempted murder, assault and gun possession, cops said. He was held on $100,000 bail after his arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court Saturday.
