{"id":412824,"date":"2025-11-29T12:25:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412824\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T12:25:33","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T12:25:33","slug":"bronx-man-shot-trying-to-break-up-fight-was-a-peace-loving-protector-uncle-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/412824\/","title":{"rendered":"Bronx man shot trying to break up fight was a peace-loving ‘protector,’ uncle says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The young peacemaker shot dead trying to break up a fight<\/a> outside a Bronx housing development lived his life as a protector of others, his grieving uncle told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Randy Blanche, 24, was shot in the head<\/a> after he tried to cool down two groups of people who got into a chaotic argument and shoving match outside the Sedgwick Houses in Morris Heights Sunday, prosecutors said. Police believe the killer, who\u2019s still at large, was summoned to the scene by his wife, whose daughters were embroiled in the heated fracas \u2014 and told to bring a gun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Randy. He lost his life being Randy. And I\u2019m good with that. He was being Randy. He didn\u2019t want no harm to nobody,\u201d said his 47-year-old uncle. \u201cThat\u2019s him. If the people that are fighting is his people, he\u2019s gonna try to stop that. He\u2019s not into that. That\u2019s not him. He\u2019s into love, he\u2019s into laughing, joking\u2026. If anybody was going (at it) with somebody, he knew he\u2019s gonna try to break the tension or make sure that they\u2019re good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fight erupted around 8 p.m., at \u00a0W. 174th St. and Popham Ave. in Morris Heights<\/a>, after the woman\u2019s daughters got into a heated argument with a group of five people, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Their mother, Denise Aponte, was also present, but instead of trying to cool the fight down, she called her husband, Marcos Rodriguez, and told him, \u201cYou need to come downstairs. Come down here,\u201d according to a criminal complaint.<\/p>\n

\"DeniseDenise Aponte is pictured in Bronx Criminal Court at her arraignment on Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025, in New York City. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Aponte also told Rodriguez to \u201cbring that,\u201d meaning the loaded pistol he used to take Blanche\u2019s life, assistant District Attorney Jenna Kemmer said at Aponte\u2019s Bronx Criminal Court<\/a> arraignment.<\/p>\n

Blanche \u201cwas not fighting and was actively trying to stop the two groups from fighting,\u201d and started to back away \u2014 but the husband fired at him \u201cnumerous times,\u201d striking him in the head, then fled, Kemmer said<\/p>\n

Blanche\u2019s uncle, who lives in Florida, said he had heard his nephew was trying to protect his girlfriend, who lives in the housing development. Blanche lived about a mile and a half from the scene, according to cops.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just a kid just trying to figure out life. That\u2019s who Randy Blanche was. He never did no harm to anybody. He didn\u2019t want to hurt anybody,\u201d the uncle said. \u201cObviously, he didn\u2019t deserve what happened to him. He was a protector and wanted to make sure that his people were safe. He didn\u2019t do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanche grew up in Harlem and the Bronx with his sister and mother, and had started working for Amazon<\/a>, his uncle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been some weeks since the last time I talked to him. He told me he was doing all right and he said he was staying out of trouble. My line to him was always, \u2018Just stay out the way. Just you work, you make your money and you stay out the way,’\u201d the uncle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to say, \u2018Uncle, I\u2019m staying out the way.\u2019 I said, \u2018OK, you stay out the way, you make your money, you don\u2019t have no problems,’\u201d the uncle recounted. \u201cHe was getting it together, he was figuring it out. He was taken too soon, before he could really be special in this world. Life goes on. But Randy Blanche was special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanche was devoted to his mom and sister, who\u2019s a senior in college. \u201cHe just wanted his family good,\u201d his uncle said. \u201cThat\u2019s all he wanted. He was a protector. He was a man at 24. He was a stand-up man that everybody loved\u2026. This heart that he had was bigger than anything in the world. That was Randy Blanche Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Victim<\/p>\n

Courtesy of family<\/p>\n

Victim Randy Blanche Jr., right, as a child with his father Randy Blanche Sr. (Courtesy of family)<\/p>\n

The uncle added, as he wept, \u201cHe loved people. He\u2019d light up a room when he\u2019d walk in. He was special. He wasn\u2019t nobody, he was special. He brought sunshine when he walked in the room. You wouldn\u2019t want him to leave. You wouldn\u2019t want Randy to leave, because he was joy, he was love, he was everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aponte, who spent five years in state prison in the 1990s for robbery<\/a>, plus another year in jail prior to sentencing, remains held without bail and charged with murder.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer said Tuesday that the charge was \u201call based on a phone call\u201d and dismissively said, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cops are still searching for her husband, Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

Blanche\u2019s uncle wouldn\u2019t say what he\u2019d tell the shooter when asked by The News.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not a question I want to answer. He could\u2019ve been spoken to. He could\u2019ve been talked to, he could\u2019ve been anything other than what happened to him,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything different from what happened. For that to happen to my nephew like that, I don\u2019t want to answer that question.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI hope they find him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The young peacemaker shot dead trying to break up a fight outside a Bronx housing development lived his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":412825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,2451,3059,5295,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5293,5321,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-412824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-newyork","19":"tag-newyorkcity","20":"tag-ny","21":"tag-nyc","22":"tag-nyc-crime","23":"tag-sub-county-region","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-of-america","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115632978686985002","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}