A domestic dispute in the early morning hours of September 17, 2017, in South Jamaica, Queens, ended with 34-year-old Luz Cuza shot dead in her front yard. Her brother had been outside shortly before the shooting and spoke with her boyfriend, Robert Rodriguez, whom he noticed was armed. After the brother went back into the home, a single gunshot was heard; he found Cuza on the ground with a fatal wound to her eye and sought help from neighbors while Rodriguez walked away carrying a shoebox.

Police identified Rodriguez as the suspect and later located a loaded semi-automatic pistol and 48 rounds of ammunition hidden in a shoebox at his Cambria Heights residence. Forensic testing linked that weapon to the fatal shot. Rodriguez, 36 at the time of his plea, was arrested and charged in connection with the killing of the mother of his infant child; he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in January 2022 and was sentenced the following month to 19 years in prison with five years of post-release supervision.

Did anyone in the neighborhood see or hear anything that might clarify what happened in those final minutes before the shot was fired?