A man died after being shot in the neck early Friday evening while relaxing in front of the apartment building where he lived in the Bronx, police said.
Cops responding to a 911 call just before 6 p.m. found the man with a gunshot wound to his neck in front of a building on Washington Ave. near E. 164th St. in the South Bronx, according to police.
Crime scene where a 46-year-old man was shot to the neck and killed outside 987 Washington Ave. at E. 164 St. in the Bronx on Aug. 22, 2025. (Kerry Burke/New York Daily News)
Medics rushed him in critical condition to Lincoln Hospital, where he died.
The gunman fled on foot.
Police identified the victim as James Gaines, 46.
James Gaines, 46. (Obtained by Daily News)
“It was, like, four shots,” said a 48-year-old witness, who did not want to give his name because he works in the area. “He was laying on his back. The shot in the neck was what killed him,” said the witness, a car mechanic.
“The gunman passed right by here,” he added. He said he did not know the victim.
“He was good people,” said Tammy Robinson, 61, who lives across the hall from the apartment where Gaines lived with his mother. “He was shot right out in front of our building. I can’t believe it.
“Snoop was a nice, polite young man,” Robinson added, using Gaines’ nickname, by which he was widely known for his resemblance to the rapper Snoop Dogg.
Before he was shot, Gaines was sitting on the sidewalk in front of his apartment building watching a show on his phone, which was still playing more than an hour later, the witness said. The man’s knapsack and thermos could be seen next to a pool of blood marking the spot where the victim had been relaxing before being fatally shot.
“My son was a good guy. He got along with everyone,” Gaines’ mother, Linda Diane Edwards, told the Daily News. “If you needed help, he would help you with anything. Someone took my son’s life for no reason.”
“He walked up and started shooting,” she said. “He shot him like four, three or four times in the chest.”
Edwards, a home health aide, said her son had PTSD and seizures after being shot in the mouth a couple years ago.
“He got shot a couple of years ago, and then he almost died of pneumonia last year,” she said. “He was in a coma. He beat that but this was his third strike.”
Edwards acknowledged her son had previous brushes with the law, but “nothing to write home about.” She did not know what prompted the shooting.
“Who would do this?” she said. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
Police are investigating. So far there have been no arrests, police said.
Originally Published: August 22, 2025 at 7:34 PM EDT