Bronx man fatally shot in lobby of apartment building by supposed friend

A 30-year-old man drinking with pals in the lobby of a Bronx apartment building was killed early Saturday when one of his supposed friends shot him in the back, police and witnesses said.


Yusef (Poe) Middleton was sipping from a cup just before 1 a.m. in the Boynton Ave. building in Soundview. One of the men in the group of about eight started getting rowdy, knocking other people’s drinks from their hands.

The hotheaded man, Osmondo Smith, 42 — a childhood friend who reconnected with Middleton a few days ago — stormed off, authorities said. “I didn’t think it was that serious,” said the victim’s cousin Sidney Middleton, 32.

About 20 minutes later, the man came back, pulled a gun out of his pocket and started screaming.

“He said something to the effect of, ‘Ya’ll trying to play me,’ ” the cousin recalled.

Yusef Middleton ran, but the gunman chased him and shot him in the back. The victim, who was released from prison in 2007 after serving six years on a weapons conviction, was the father of a 1-year-old daughter.

“He was a lovable ladies’ man,” Sidney Middleton said.

Smith was later booked on charges including murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.