Tykeem Berry

An after-school trip for snacks turned into a tragedy on a December afternoon in 2022, ending the life of Tykeem Berry, a 30-year-old Black man from New York. On December 15, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Berry and his 10-year-old daughter, whom he had just picked up from school, stopped at the 144 Deli-Grocery on Nagle Avenue in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood. Inside the store, an argument erupted between Berry and another man, Joseph Morros, reportedly because Berry was upset that Morros was staring at him.

The verbal dispute quickly escalated. Surveillance video showed Morros leaving the deli and shouting for Berry to meet him outside. Moments later, Morros charged back into the store, brandishing a gun and pointing it at Berry. In an apparent effort to protect his daughter, who was still inside, Berry rushed at Morros and pushed him back out onto the sidewalk. It was there that Morros fired a single shot, striking Berry in the chest. Morros then fled the scene, leaving Berry on the pavement as his young daughter watched from inside the store. Emergency responders rushed Berry to Harlem Hospital, but he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

Family members remembered Tykeem Berry as a loving father to his daughter and an 8-year-old son. "My son was a good man," his father, Daryl Frazier, told reporters. His sister, Karen Mebane, described him as a "loving and caring man" who "grew up to be a good man, a good father and was leading a good life." The store’s owner and customers shielded Berry’s daughter from the scene after the shooting, giving her a soda and trying to comfort her.

The entire incident was captured on the store's surveillance video, which proved crucial to the investigation. The New York Police Department quickly identified 27-year-old Joseph Morros as the suspect and arrested him four days later on December 19, 2022. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced that a grand jury had indicted Morros on charges of Murder in the Second Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree.

The case proceeded to a jury trial in New York State Supreme Court. On July 28, 2026, the jury found Joseph Morros guilty on all counts. Following the conviction, District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., noted the "horrific trauma" the victim's daughter had to endure by witnessing the murder. On October 2, 2026, Morros was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.