MELROSE — A Bronx file clerk who family described as a loving uncle and brother was fatally shot at a South Bronx housing project over a fender-bender early on Sunday morning, his family said.
Rafael Guzman, 39, was shot in the back by 681 Courtlandt Ave. in the Melrose Houses around 4:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to the NYPD.
He was taken to Lincoln Hospital and pronounced dead, authorities said.
Although police initially said the murder appeared to be sparked by Guzman attempting to rob two men, his family vigorously disputed this account.
“I think I would have been able to maybe deal with his death more had he been robbing,” said Guzman's cousin Luis Ithier, “because I would have then said, when you do things like that, this is what happens.”
Officers later clarified that the murder was sparked by an argument between 21-year-old suspect Maurilio Juarez, his brother, and a group of people including Guzman but did not have details on what this dispute was about.
According to his family, Guzman was standing by 681 Courtlandt Ave. with a friend just before the murder when a cab hit his friend’s car and drove off.
Guzman went up to take a picture of the taxi’s license plate, at which point a man who they had not been speaking with started yelling in Spanish, and Guzman tried to talk with him and calm him down, his family said.
The man then went inside a building, came out with a gun and started shooting, fatally hitting Guzman, Ithier said.
“it was a misunderstanding,” he said.
“This young man in that rough neighborhood was doing the right thing, and it’s so painful and so hurtful to us,” Ithier continued. “…He was taken for trying to bring peace to an area.”
Juarez has since been arrested and charged with Guzman's murder, police said.
He was arraigned on Monday and ordered held without bail, and he is due back in court on Aug. 19, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Guzman's family has started a GoFundMe page for his funeral that has raised $5,230 of its $7,000 goal in two days. They said he had been working as a file clerk at the law firm Malapero and Prisco for about eight years.
"Rafael was a good person, always smiling and ready to help in any way he can," said Cynthia Camacho, a lawyer at the firm. "We are all grateful to have known him."
Ithier lives in Puerto Rico but said he would talk to Guzman every time he came to New York City and was extremely sad that he was gone.
"I’m going to miss him so much," he said. "Sometimes you feel like you just need the community. If all these good people leave the community, what are you left with?"
