A violent parolee identified by his own parole officer is wanted for gunning down two strangers in armed robberies at a Brooklyn wings shop and a Bronx deli roughly 48 hours apart.
Jesus Acosta, 31, has been on parole since April after serving just over 10 years in state prison for a 2015 Harlem subway shooting, police said. He allegedly committed his latest crimes around midnight Sunday at America’s Best Wings and Pizza on Rockaway Avenue in Brownsville, then struck again around 12:15 a.m. Tuesday at a deli on East 149th Street near Walton Avenue in the Concourse section of The Bronx.
At the Brooklyn restaurant, Acosta shot a 44-year-old worker in the head and struck another man, 39, in the leg, officials said. Both victims were taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, where the older man succumbed to his injuries and the younger victim was listed in stable condition.
The slain worker was identified by loved ones as MD Yousuf, originally from Bangladesh. “was a hardworking, kind man who supported his family and showed up for his coworkers every day,” according to a GoFundMe page organized on his family’s behalf.
“MD Yousuf was the only income earner for his family,” the fundraising page continued. “He is survived by his wife, his mother, and two daughters, ages 12 and 3. His family had no warning and no savings for something like this. They now have no income and no way to bring his body home.”
It was not immediately clear what if anything Acosta was allegedly able to steal during the Brooklyn stick-up before he fled.
At the Bronx deli, the gunman opened fire during another hold-up, hitting a 33-year-old male customer in the chest, police said. That victim, who remains unidentified pending family notification, was rushed to Lincoln Medical Center and initially listed in stable condition. His condition quickly deteriorated and he was pronounced dead at the hospital later Tuesday, authorities said.
Video from the Bronx scene shows the hooded gunman ignoring a customer at the counter before brazenly opening fire at another. The shooter is then shown rifling through the cash register, removing wads of cash and fleeing through the door. It was not immediately clear how much money was stolen.
Acosta, who did not know either of the dead victims, was identified as the suspect in both shootings by his parole officer, according to law-enforcement sources.
In the viral moment that preceded his latest alleged crimes, Acosta served just over 10 years in state prison before his April parole release in connection to the May 5, 2015, shooting of a stranger during a dispute at the 110th Street–Malcolm X Plaza train station in Manhattan. He got into an argument with the 20-year-old victim on board a northbound No. 2 train just after 11 p.m. Before pumping a bullet into the victim’s left arm when the skirmish continued on the crowded platform, police said. He pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and was sentenced to 11 years behind bars in 2016, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Besides the subway case, Acosta has three other previous arrests, police said. It’s unclear what they were for.
Police describe him as having a light complexion, around 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, with short brown hair and brown eyes. He also has the word “Bronx” tattooed on his hand and the name “Bobby” tattooed on his left forearm, police said.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).