Police Brutality / Individual record
Reynaldo Cuevas
Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, was fatally shot by an NYPD officer while fleeing a robbery of the Bronx bodega where he worked in September 2012.
- Record ID
- PB-059
- Date of death
- September 7, 2012
- Outcome
- Fatal
- Location
- Bronx, NY
- Category
- Police shooting
What happened
On September 7, 2012, three masked robbers entered the grocery store where Reynaldo Cuevas worked in the Bronx. Cuevas and a coworker fled to escape the robbery when responding police arrived. As Cuevas emerged, he collided with Officer Ramsyh Bangali, and the officer's pistol discharged, killing Cuevas. His family emphasized that he was an innocent worker, not one of the suspects, and questioned why a police intervention ended his life. His sister and other relatives held annual demonstrations seeking accountability and a fuller investigation of officer weapon handling.
Investigation & findings
The NYPD characterized the discharge as accidental and cleared Bangali of wrongdoing. The Bronx district attorney later obtained guilty pleas and prison sentences against the robbers, but those prosecutions were distinct from the officer's shooting. Cuevas's family pursued wrongful-death litigation.
Source record details
- Source incident ID
- Historical source-derived record, pre-2015
Sources & records
- Primary source
- Additional source
- Methodology and national police killings trackingMapping Police Violence · Dataset/methodology
- Published historical compilation of Black people killed in police custody (1999–2014)SAGE journal / cited NAACP LDF memorial listing · 2016 · Secondary scholarly source