A Bronx man planning to bring flowers to his mom’s grave for Mother’s Day was shot to death down the block from the smoke shop where he was wrapping up his shift.
Darren Davis, 30, was shot in the chest and a 42-year-old woman was blasted in the leg outside a bodega on Willis Ave. near E. 138th St. in Mott Haven at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Minutes later, his girlfriend of several years showed up to meet Davis at the end of his shift only to find him mortally wounded outside a bodega a few doors down.
“I was pulling up to meet him,” said the girlfriend, who gave her name as Melissa. “When I came, he was already in the ambulance. They was trying to revive him, and they didn’t know his name.”
Davis and the wounded woman were strangers to each other, police sources said. No arrest have been made, and cops have yet to establish a motive.
“I don’t think anyone knows,” Melissa said of the motive. “He didn’t have problems with anyone, and that’s what everyone’s saying. It was random. I don’t know why. I don’t think we’re ever gonna know why.”
Less than an hour before she arrived at the store, she spoke to Davis over the phone.
“He said, ‘Hurry up, I just bought you a Mother’s Day gift and I want you to see it,’” she tearfully recalled. “I told him I was coming.”
“He called me again and I missed it,” she added. “I missed his phone call. I was listening to music, jamming, happy for this weekend.”
Courtesy of family
Darren Davis was fatally shot in the chest on Saturday. (Courtesy of family)
Medics rushed Davis and the wounded woman to Lincoln Hospital, but Davis could not be saved. The woman is in stable condition, cops said.
“He was going to go see his mother who passed away about five, six years ago. He was gonna bring her flowers to her grave,” Melissa said. “He bought a bouquet of roses so that way he could give all the mothers a rose. That’s the kind of guy he was — a little showoff, but he was always giving.”
He had also promised flowers to his aunt, Shannon Davis.
“He said, ‘Auntie, you cooking?’” the aunt said. “I said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘You coming over?’ He said, ‘Yeah. I got you some beautiful flowers.’ I said, ‘OK.’”
“He didn’t deserve this. … I need answers,” Shannon Davis added. “They have this thing, ‘If you see something, say something,’ but they don’t say nothing … I hope whoever did this to my nephew [suffers] consequences. You took somebody’s life for? For? He didn’t deserve that. He didn’t.”
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News; Courtesy of Luis Diaz
A man lights a candle outside a deli at 224 Willis Ave. in the Bronx on Sunday in honor of Darren Davis (inset), who was fatally shot on Saturday night. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News; Courtesy of Luis Diaz)
Darren Davis was “one of the guardians of the block,” one of his close friends, who gave his name as Joel, 37, said of the area where Davis was killed and worked as the manager of the smoke shop. “You know one thing for sure, when you make it to this block, you gonna see him.”
Melissa recalled how Davis would dress up for Halloween and give candy to neighborhood kids.
“He loved my cooking,” she said. “When I met him he was slim. He’s a big guy now! I started my food business because of him … He said, ‘Everybody gotta taste your food! Everybody!’”
Davis’ slaying marks the sixth homicide in the Bronx’s 40th Precinct this year. The precinct saw six murders through May 4 last year and 14 in all of 2024, NYPD statistics show.
Courtesy of Luis Diaz
Darren Davis was fatally shot in the chest on Saturday. (Courtesy of Luis Diaz)
Four years ago, one man was killed and another wounded outside the same bodega where Davis was shot. Charles Wilkins, 24, was shot about a dozen times while a 20-year-old man was struck in the leg after they stepped out of the deli on May 18, 2021. A gunman got out of a four-door sedan, opened fire and kept shooting as the two victims ran for cover. No arrests have been made in that killing, which cops believe was drug-related.
Originally Published: May 11, 2025 at 8:59 AM EDT
