A teenager was arrested Wednesday in the fatal shooting of a Bronx man finishing his work shift ahead of a planned visit to his mom’s gravesite to leave roses for Mother’s Day, cops said.
The 15-year-old youth is facing charges of murder for the May 10 gun blast that hit Darren Davis, 30, in the chest outside a bodega on Willis Ave. near E. 138th St. in Mott Haven around 8:30 p.m. — just steps from the smoke shop where Davis was finishing a shift, police said. A 42-year-old woman, who was a stranger to Davis, was shot in the leg.
Front page for May 12, 2025: Planned to put flowers on ma’s grave but shot on Bronx street. Darren Davis got roses to put on his mother’s grave and a gift for his girlfriend, but when she came to meet him after work he’d been morally wounded on a Mott Haven street.
Minutes after the shooting, Davis’ longtime girlfriend showed up to meet him — only to find him mortally wounded outside the bodega a few doors away.
“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.”
Medics rushed Davis and the wounded woman to Lincoln Hospital, but Davis could not be saved. The woman was in stable condition, cops said.
“He was going to go see his mother who passed away about five, six years ago,” Melissa said. “He was gonna bring her flowers to her grave. 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 for 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.’”
A man lights a candle outside a deli at 224 Willis Avenue 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)
“He didn’t deserve this. … I need answers,” Shannon Davis said.
The 15-year-old’s arraignment in Bronx criminal court was pending Wednesday night.
“He didn’t have problems with anyone, and that’s what everyone’s saying,” Melissa said. “It was random. I don’t know why. I don’t think we’re ever gonna know why.” .
Davis was said to be “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 manager of the smoke shop. “You know one thing for sure, when you make it to this block, you gonna see him.”