Bronx dad of 2 killed in suspected drug-related shooting mourned

Bronx native Jeffrey Lopez had everything to live for — a loving family, good friends and a 3-month-old newborn son he wanted to introduce to the world.

But on Wednesday, all those plans were brought to a violent end in a cloud of gun smoke.

“We’re all hurting,” Price, a longtime friend of 30-year-old Lopez, told the Daily News, noting that everyone near the corner of Beaumont Ave. near E. 187th St. in Belmont — a few blocks from the Bronx Zoo — were left stunned by the slaying there. “People that own stores, the pharmacy, everybody’s hurt about this.”

Lopez was killed in front of his two older brothers. The three were known to hang out at the corner, neighbors said.

“They never made any trouble. [He] and his brothers have been out here almost every day,” said Mario Krasniqi, the owner of Mario’s Pizza & Italian Homemade Cuisine, which is across the street from where the shooting took place. “I know them as good neighbors. They come to the store. They even help me with the vans. It’s shocking and surprising.”

Cops are continuing to search for a masked gunman who fired nine shots toward Lopez, fatally striking him in the head.

Police believe the shooting was narcotics related. Lopez, they claim, was a dealer.

The gunman escaped in a silver Honda following the 6 p.m. shooting.

After he was shot, Lopez stumbled halfway down the block before he collapsed on the street. A Yankees cap, cell phone, comb and disposable phone were found lying in a pool of blood in front of the takeout restaurant.

Medics rushed Lopez to St. Barnabas Hospital , but everyone knew “he was already gone,” Price said.

“Once the shots finished I walked over to see who was laying down. His brother was right here with him. He died right in front of two of his brothers. His older brothers.”

One of his siblings put Jeffrey’s Yankee cap back on his head to save other family members from seeing the vicious wound.

“He didn’t want nobody to see him like that, so he put the hat over his face,” Price remembered. “He said, ‘My brother’s gone.'”

Days later, a heart made out of rose petals was left at the scene where Lopez died along with a makeshift memorial filled with pictures and messages to the fallen father.

Longtime friends remembered Lopez as a lovable computer game nerd and father of two who enjoyed building computers and had a menagerie of pets, including a snake, lizard, tarantula and a dog named Venom.

Lopez’s older son is 8. His youngest is just 3 months.

“If he’s not with his animals he got his kids,” Price said. “The baby lived with him. His oldest son didn’t. But he takes him every weekend. He takes his son and his son’s brother, that’s not even his kid, every weekend. Just cause he don’t want [the other child] to feel left out.”

Lopez lived about three blocks from where he was killed, cops said.

“He didn’t bother nobody,” Price said. “He always had everybody laughing. He was very outspoken.”

Lopez had been arrested three times, once for selling drugs, police said. His most recent arrest was in 2020 when cops nabbed him for criminal mischief. He had also been arrested for misdemeanor assault.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Friday the gunman had targeted Lopez. Surveillance video recovered from the scene recorded the gunman as he “walks down Beaumont, pulls a pistol from his waistband and fires nine times toward E. 187th St., where he hits our victim one time in the head,” Kenny said

“He arrives and flees in a silver Honda,” Kenny said about the gunman.

Cops are trying to see if the murder is linked to five other shootings in the area since April 21.

“All of this violence is happening [right there],” Kenny said. “We’re trying to see if any of it or all of it is connected.”

Cops have released images of the gunman in the hopes someone recognizes him. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.