‘We met on the block where he was killed’: Wife expecting twins says Bronx shooting victim had good heart
Jason Rivera stopping to help a stranger on the Bronx street where he used to live doesn’t surprise his wife.
“He’s always been like that,” Shantay White said. “People know him over there for that. People just know him, period, for that.”
But the fact the good deed would cost her 35-year-old husband his life is something White, pregnant with twins, never could have imagined.
Rivera was gunned down Friday night on Taylor Ave. near Guerlain St. in Parkchester after he stopped to help a man who was was possibly drunk and acting erratically in the Taylor Playground.
Besides the twins due in November, Rivera and his wife are parents to a 7-year-old girl, 3-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy.
Police released shocking surveillance video showing the sweat-shirted gunman calmly walking past Rivera and the 43-year-old disturbed man before doubling back and opening fire.
A loud gunshot fills the air in the minutes before midnight and Rivera appears to flinch. That’s where the video ends.
More shots followed and Rivera was hit in the head and chest before the gunman fled in a black Mercedes SUV he left parked by a fire hydrant, according to cops.
Rivera managed to get the man he was helping to sit on a bench before speaking his last words.
“You good?” Rivera asked the man, the video reveals. “You OK?”
The next sound is the first deafening gunshot.
White has seen the video and as shocked as she was by the brutality, the grieving mom said she was struck by something else.
“We met on the block where he was killed,” White said. “That’s the crazy part.”
White and Rivera, who had been together eight years, moved to Staten Island two years ago but they remained very much a part of the Bronx, where they still had family and friends.
“I think he was just hanging out,” White said.
Rivera had issues with some people in the neighborhood but his wife said she doesn’t believe it was anything serious.
“It wasn’t to where it had to be something like this,” she said. “His beef was minor beef, like guy beef stuff, you know. It wasn’t something for somebody to have that much hatred, to take their time to sit and actually wait for him.”
“There were kids in the park,” White added. “The block that it happened on seemed kind of busy at the time. It seemed like people were outside. And for the person to just walk away and go back the same way.”
White got a phone call early Saturday about the shooting.
“It’s a shock to me still,” White said. “I broke down a couple times but I do have to try to be strong for my kids.”
“And then just to see that video,” she added. “Just to see him get shot.”
Still she is confident the video, as painful as it is to watch, will help cops catch the killer.
“They actually have a picture of the guy’s face, how the guy was built, how he walked up to him, the car and everything,” White said. ”So I’m hoping with that it will get somebody to call if they know the person or if they know the car. I have a good feeling that they’re going to catch the person.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
