CBS2 Exclusive: Family Wants Arrest In Shooting That Left Bullet In 76-Year-Old Bronx Man's Head
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A 76-year-old Bronx man survived a shooting in his own building, but has been living with a bullet lodged in his jaw ever since.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported exclusively Friday, the crime remained unsolved nearly five years later, and police were still looking for help.
The gunman got into Isidro Serrano's building on Grant Avenue in the Concourse section of the Bronx. He remembers it vividly.
It was 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning, Serrano said. The gunman was a teenager with a hood pulled tightly over his face, waiting in the hallway and telling him, "Hold up."
He said he is pretty sure the teen stalked him -- perhaps noticing the large amount of cash he stuck in his pocket after a visit to the check cashing place across the street.
Serrano told CBS2 in Spanish that he wasn't scared, and pushed back when the gunman reached for his pocket. Both fell to the floor.
That was when the gunman shot him.
He said the bullet went into his mouth, and shattered his jaw -- where doctors would decide to leave it.
His son, Emmanuel Salgado, remembers hearing his father's call for help at the door, letting him in, and seeing him on his hands and knees.
"And I see a lot of blood gushing out of his mouth, and then I'm screaming. I'm saying: 'What happened? What happened?'" Salgado said.
By the time Serrano's family realized what happened, the robber was gone. A surveillance camera on the corner snapped a picture of him running away.
"We called the ambulance, he sit down -- he never fall on the floor, never," said Serrano's wife, Carmen Negron. "He's a strong person -- very strong."
Serrano said the bullet lodged in his jaw doesn't bother him.
But his family would feel better if police got a break in the case.
"I just hope they really find him and lock him up," Negron said, "because if not, he's going to keep doing it to other people."
Nearly five years after the shooting, police were hoping someone would recognize the person in the picture taken with the cameras at a bodega at Grant Avenue and East 167th Street, and call in a tip.
Police were also hoping Serrano will recognize a suspect, and they're offering a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
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