In the early morning hours of August 18, 2019, the courtyard of the Academy Gardens complex on Commonwealth Avenue in the Bronx was the scene of a fatal shooting. Twenty-six-year-old resident Nestor Ventura was with a friend when an argument with another man escalated and the man produced a gun, shooting Ventura multiple times in the chest. Police responded to a 911 call about 3:52 a.m., and Ventura was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Surveillance video from the complex showed a man moving in and out of the property; investigators treated that person as a person of interest and examined how the suspect gained access despite a security guard being required to grant guest entry. A $2,500 reward was offered for information leading to an arrest. Police later identified 36-year-old Dane Richardson as the suspect; he was arrested on December 4, 2019, at a motel on the New England Thruway and charged in Ventura’s murder.

Anyone with information about Ventura, the argument that night, or how the shooter entered Academy Gardens is asked to come forward.