An aspiring rapper gunned down in the hallway of a Bronx NYCHA complex by a 15-year-old robber had been trying to turn his life around since his release from prison — selling watermelons on a street corner to support himself and his young daughter.
Single dad Ali Flores was found lying in a pool of blood, cash strewn around him, in a seventh-floor hallway of the Saint Mary’s Park Houses on Webster Ave. near E. 156th St. in Melrose about 8:30 p.m. Oct. 16. He was robbed of a small amount of marijuana, according the the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Flores, 26, had been shot in the chest by a crew of at least four crooks, prosecutors say.
“It hurts man. I’ve been crying and pacing around all day,” the victim’s brother Norman Flores, 33, told the Daily News. “I’m just trying to stay active but it’s hard.”
Medics rushed the victim to Lincoln Hospital, where he died. He lived in Harlem with his 5-year-old daughter and was visiting the building where he was killed.
Police investigate the shooting in the seventh-floor hallway of the Saint Mary’s Park Houses on October 16. (Sam Costanza for New York Daily News)
Francisco Deleon, 23, and the 15-year-old accused shooter were arrested the next day and charged with murder, cops said.
The boy’s name was not released by authorities because he is underage. He is being prosecuted in Bronx Supreme Court as an adolescent offender and held at a youth detention center.
Deleon, accused of being part of the crew that robbed the victim as the boy shot him, is also charged with manslaughter, robbery and weapon possession. He lives in the building where the shooting occurred and is being held without bail on Rikers Island.
“I guess they were trying to jump him and then one of them ended up shooting him,” said the victim’s brother. “I guess they was trying to rob him and he was in the wrong place, wrong time. He was by himself and it was like four people.”
The brother hopes both suspects face long years in prison — regardless of their ages.
“I hope it sticks and they get the maximum time,” Norman Flores said. “That’s sad that the dude is so young. I hope he is charged as an adult.”
Ali Flores was 21 when a judge sentenced him to five years in prison following a conviction for attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon, state Department of Corrections records show.
He was paroled in December 2021 and went on to start a fruit stand at W. 118th St. and Fifth Ave.
“He was literally just trying to get himself together and taking care of his daughter by himself,” said 33-year-old Norman Flores. “He didn’t want to sell drugs. He didn’t want to sell nothing illegal so he started selling watermelons.”
Court records show that a year after his release from prison Ali Flores was arrested for criminal possession of a loaded firearm in Manhattan on Dec. 16, 2022. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and was due back in Manhattan Criminal Court on Nov. 20.
Ali Flores worked nearly every day selling watermelons and the daily grind made him a fixture in Harlem, according to a friend who spoke to The News at a makeshift memorial set up near the fruit stand.
“I started thinking about his daughter immediately,” Timothy Woodyear, who befriended the victim 13 years ago, said of the slaying. “I just was sad because I know that he’s a great father.”
The distraught brother said that the victim doted on his daughter and the two had “a unique bond”.
“He would pick her up from school, take her to school every day,” said Norman Flores. “He loved her and she loved him.”
The little girl doesn’t yet know the dad she adored is gone, said Norman Flores. He and his mother were making the trip to New York to tell her in person.
A memorial set up near where Ali Flores sold watermelons. (Anusha Bayya)
Ali Flores dreamed of a music career. Rapping under the name 1185 Juice, a nod to the intersection where he worked, his songs reflected his struggles growing up on the streets.
“His lyrics were about unfortunate situations like this — unfortunate situations being a Black man, coming outside, and growing up outside,” the victim’s brother said
The victim recorded numerous tracks prior to his death.
“I got a bunch of unreleased music from him,” said the victim’s brother. “I’m gonna keep pushing it out little by little.”
Ali Flores also had talent as an illustrator and had recently been considering selling caricatures to tourists in Times Square.
“He’s an artist. He just told my mom that he’s about to go down to 42nd St.,,” said the victim’s brother. “He knew how to do that real well.”
A TikTok account belonging to the victim included footage of police arresting him alongside more lighthearted videos of him dancing with his daughter.
With her sole guardian dead, the victim’s daughter will likely leave the city to live with her grandmother in North Carolina, Norman Flores said.
“He was taking care of her himself,” said the victim’s brother. “So now it’s like, what’s gonna happen to the daughter now?”
