On a late summer afternoon in the Bronx, 21-year-old Sydi Bayo was fatally shot on September 1, 2022. The shooting happened at about 4:00 PM inside an apartment on Valentine Avenue near East 178th Street while Bayo, an Uber Eats delivery worker of Gambian descent, was visiting a friend who lived there. Police responded to a 911 call and found him unconscious and unresponsive with a gunshot wound; he was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and pronounced dead.

Bayo’s family said he was kind, down-to-earth, and a devout Muslim. The day after the shooting, police arrested 21-year-old Cheick Diarra, who lived at the Valentine Avenue apartment and was identified as a friend of the victim. Diarra was charged with murder, manslaughter, and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. The motive and exact circumstances that led to the shooting remain under investigation.

If anyone was in the area of Valentine Avenue and East 178th Street on September 1, 2022, or has information about that apartment or the people there, please come forward.