A Bronx shooting that left two people dead erupted from a heated dispute between migrant squatters and fed-up legal residents of the apartment building – with the migrant suspect now on the run, police said.
Josue Ruben Silva, 21, who already has a lengthy rap sheet, is being sought by cops in the May 24 fatal shooting.
Silva “was among a group of migrants that had been squatting inside the building” when one longtime resident – Claretha Daniels, 44 – told her pals that one of the asylum seekers disrespected her, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Tuesday.
“So, basically what you have now is the older residents from the building that have lived there for some time, come to her aid,” Kenny said.
“The new arrivals, they run into the building, they come back with their crew that is armed with bats, knives and all sorts of weapons.”
One tenant, Everett Slade, got into fisticuffs with one of the migrants, who got the worst of the exchange – which is when Silva pulled out a gun and opened fire, the chief said.
Slade was shot in the arm, while Daniels and another man, identified as Justin Lawless, were shot in the chest and mortally wounded. Silva then allegedly fled the scene — and is now the subject of a manhunt.
Kenny said tension between tenants and the squatters had been building in the lead-up to the shooting.
“Witness statements say that these [migrant] guys are taking over several apartments in the building,” he said. “They’ve been living there the last six months. They broke into abandoned vacant apartments.”
Law enforcement sources said Silva, who has been busted a half dozen times this year on robbery, theft and gun charges, is also a person of interest in a series of migrant moped charges.
A source close to the investigation told The Post that Silva crossed the US border with Mexico illegally in May 2023 and was later caught and sent to a shelter.
But the fugitive migrant could be using an alias – and may actually be just 17 years old.
