Cops have arrested the disgruntled tenant who gunned down the superintendent of his Bronx apartment building, and wounded two others, during an ongoing argument over access to the building’s backyard, officials said Thursday.
Jimmy Avila is facing murder, attempted murder and multiple weapons possession charges for blasting away at building super Ryan Hines, 37, inside the College Ave. apartment building near E. 170th St. around 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, officials said.
He also struck and wounded a 62-year-old fellow tenant standing next to Hines and a 59-year-old man as he continued to shoot Hines as he chased the super into the backyard, officials said.
After the shooting, Avila, who has an established mental health history with two documented incidents with the NYPD, hid in his first floor apartment and reached out to News 12 Bronx, claiming that he wouldn’t surrender until the outlet arrived to film it.
“I didn’t mean to do this, but I had to do it because these people were threatening my life,” the suspect told News 12 Bronx when he called the station.
Avila’s arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Thursday.
Hines was shot in the chest, cops said. The tenant the super was with, identified by his wife as Orlando Nieves, was struck in the arm, with the bullet then going into the side of his chest.
“My husband got hit twice,” Nieves’ spouse, who gave her name only as Ebony, told the Daily News. “He was ducking down, and I was pulling him through the door.”
“The super ran out and [the suspect] chased him outside,” she added.
A 59-year-old man was shot in the buttocks. That victim, who is believed to homeless according to News 12, later showed up at an area hospital and is expected to recover.
Medics rushed Hines and Nieves to an area hospital, where the super died.
News 12 Bronx did a story on Avila in 2022 after he complained about a dispute with the landlord of a different rent-controlled apartment in the Bronx over his refrigerator not working for a year.
He has since left that apartment. In the past three years, he has sent two dozen emails to News 12 with story ideas for reporters to pursue, a source at the station said.
A friend who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Robert, said the suspect suffers from bipolar disorder.
The Wednesday morning killing is the fifth shooting to take place in the Bronx within 24 hours. On Tuesday, four people were shot, two fatally, in four separate incidents.
Mayor Adams on Wednesday said that he was activating a “full mobilization plan” to tamp down on the gun violence in the borough.
