Police are asking the public to help find a man they have identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a Bronx Uber driver on New Year’s Day, the city\u2019s first reported homicide of the year.<\/p>\n
NYPD officials said 24-year-old Ehinel Troncoso is wanted in connection with 55-year-old Issa Mbolo-Isac<\/a>\u2019s death as the driver finished up a long New Year\u2019s Eve shift behind the wheel. The shooting took place around 7 a.m. on Jan. 1 near Morris Avenue and the Cross Bronx Expressway in Mount Hope, authorities said.<\/p>\n Mbolo-Isac had just spoken to his brother by phone and was on his way to a mosque when two men approached his vehicle and tried to force him out, according to Fernando Mateo, chair of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. When Mbolo-Isac tried to drive away, the men shot at the car. The NYPD said he was struck in his head and died at the scene.<\/p>\n Mateo called Mbolo-Isac a \u201cgreat human being\u201d and devout Muslim who \u201conly gave of himself.\u201d He said the driver\u2019s grieving family was in a state of shock.<\/p>\n The federation put forward a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspects\u2019 arrests, which Mateo said is the largest reward the organization has ever offered. Police have not yet taken anyone into custody in the case.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI never see Issa even [have a] simple argument with somebody like that,\u201d said Mansour Massamba, a friend who knew Mbolo-Isac for more than 20 years and called him one of the kindest people he\u2019s ever known.<\/p>\n Massamba said Mbolo-Isac switched to driving for Uber about six years ago after selling his taxi medallion. He never seemed afraid to work overnight shifts, and he maintained a very high rating on the app, his friend said. News of Mbolo-Isac\u2019s death shook his family in Burkina Faso, where he has a wife and three children, according to Massamba.<\/p>\n \u201cThe taxi drivers are the No. 1-targeted from the people in New York City,\u201d he said. \u201cThey gonna just come after you, trying to provoke you.\u201d<\/p>\n Mbolo-Isac\u2019s death was the first homicide of 2026, officials said. It followed a year of record-low shootings<\/a> and a 20% decrease in homicides<\/a> across the city, according to police.<\/p>\n In November, another for-hire driver was stabbed and seriously wounded<\/a> in the Bronx, near Randall Avenue and White Plains Road, authorities said. He was taken to Jacobi Hospital for emergency surgery as police searched for video that could lead them to the driver’s assailant, according to Mateo.<\/p>\n