A 49-year-old man who allegedly threatened customers inside a Bronx deli with a handgun, then opened fire on two NYPD officers outside the store, was shot by police and taken to hospital in stable condition on Monday afternoon, November 2, 2026 — a daylight gunfight on a busy Fordham street, next door to a daycare, that left no officers hit by gunfire.
Source: New York Post via Pulptastic
The New York Daily News reported that officers were called to a man menacing people inside a store near Bainbridge Avenue and East 194th Street in the Fordham neighbourhood at about 3:24 p.m. Assistant Chief Aneudy Castillo of Patrol Borough Bronx North, who briefed reporters at the scene, put the start at about 3:20 p.m. and identified the store as the Sammy Gourmet Deli. The corner sits in the NYPD's 52nd Precinct, and scene video placed the shooting outside 2657 Bainbridge Avenue, between East 194th and East 196th Streets.
Source: New York Daily News via Officer.com
Inside the deli: a gun pulled, racked and pointed at customers
According to Chief Castillo's account, the man — identified by police as Victor Soto, 49 — entered the Sammy Gourmet Deli and began threatening the people inside. Castillo told reporters Soto pulled out his gun, racked the weapon and pointed it at patrons, causing them to “duck for cover.” He then left the store and walked northbound on Bainbridge Avenue. Nobody inside the deli was reported injured.
Source: New York Post via Pulptastic
Outside, two uniformed officers in an NYPD vehicle spotted Soto “violently slam” the firearm into the deli's glass window, Castillo said. The officers got out and issued verbal commands for him to drop the weapon. Law enforcement sources told NBC New York that police had first received a call about someone threatening a person with a gun, and that when officers arrived the man turned, pointed the gun at them and opened fire.
Source: NBC New York via USA News 24
Shots at the officers — and the return fire
Police say Soto pointed the firearm directly at the officers and began shooting while continuing to walk northbound. The Daily News reported that the gunman's shots went wide and hit no one. One officer returned fire, according to the Post's account of Castillo's briefing, striking Soto. The Daily News reported he was struck in the chest and leg; NBC New York's sources said police shot the suspect at least three times. The exact number of rounds and hits has not been officially released, and those early reports differ in detail — what every account agrees on is that Soto was wounded, disarmed and taken to a nearby hospital, where the Post reported him in stable condition and the Daily News said he is expected to survive. A firearm was recovered at the scene.
Source: New York Daily News via Officer.com
Confirmed by police at the scene: the suspect is Victor Soto, 49; he is in stable condition; a firearm was recovered; no officer was struck by gunfire. Not yet released: the charges Soto will face, the number of shots fired by each side, and what started the confrontation inside the deli. Early reports differ on small details — treat any single account of the shot count as preliminary.
No police officer was hit. NBC New York reported that two officers were taken to Jacobi Hospital suffering from tinnitus — ringing in the ears caused by the close-range gunfire — which is why early headlines briefly described officers as ‘taken to hospital’ even though none had been shot. CBS News New York's account, carried by The Generation, likewise reported no officers injured and a firearm recovered, with the suspect's injuries described as not life-threatening.
Source: CBS News New York via The Generation
The suspect, the record police cited, and the daycare next door
Chief Castillo told reporters that Soto has eight prior arrests on his record, including charges for assaults and criminal possession of a firearm — a history police put before the public within hours of the shooting, while stressing that the charges in this case itself have not yet been announced and that Soto's alleged actions on Monday are allegations until a court decides them. Police have not said what, if anything, set off the confrontation inside the deli.
Source: New York Post via Pulptastic
The gunfire erupted beside a daycare. A parent identified only as Alex, who was picking up her child from the daycare next to the deli, told the Post she witnessed the exchange of gunfire between the officers and the suspect. For families across Fordham — and for the wider New York metropolitan area's large Indian and Punjabi communities, many of whom live, work and run small stores in neighbourhoods like this one — the frightening detail of this story is how ordinary the setting was: a corner deli, mid-afternoon, children being collected from daycare a few steps away.
Source: New York Post via Pulptastic
What happens next
Soto remains in hospital in stable condition, and the NYPD investigation is ongoing. Police have not yet announced the charges he will face — NBC New York reported on Tuesday that it was still unclear what charges the suspect may face — and an arrest on charges such as attempted murder of a police officer would be announced by the department and the Bronx District Attorney once he is fit to be processed. As is standard after a police shooting in New York City, the department's review of the officers' actions will run alongside the criminal case against Soto, and investigators will rely on the recovered firearm, scene evidence and any surveillance or body-camera video to settle the details that early reports still disagree on.