NYPD detectives this week tracked a suspect across state lines and arrested a New Jersey man in connection with a deadly Throggs Neck shooting that killed a 23-year-old last summer. Authorities identified the suspect as 43-year-old Daunte Pugh, who was taken into custody in Willingboro, New Jersey, on May 26 and is charged in the Aug. 2, 2025 slaying. The arrest brings a measure of closure to a lingering case that left residents of the Throggs Neck Houses on edge.
According to the New York Daily News, detectives from the 45th Precinct arrested Pugh and charged him with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession. He has an arraignment pending in Bronx Criminal Court. The outlet reports that Pugh lives in Willingboro and was apprehended there by NYPD detectives on May 26. Police did not immediately disclose a possible motive, the report adds.
Shooting At Throggs Neck Houses
The gunfire broke out in the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2025, outside a building in the Throggs Neck Houses on Sampson Avenue, around 1:45 a.m., according to amNY. EMS rushed 23-year-old Shane Sanchez to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Police say the killing unfolded during a stretch of shootings in the neighborhood that week.
Earlier Violence And A Separate Arrest
Five days before Sanchez’s killing, two men were shot to death on Brush Avenue near Schley Avenue. Investigators later arrested 20-year-old Darwin Martinez in March 2026 in connection with that double slaying, according to an NYPD account posted by Bronx.com. Taken together, those incidents turned the 45th Precinct into one of the borough’s flashpoints for violence last summer. Law-enforcement sources say the cluster of cases shows how a brief surge in gunfire can ripple through a small neighborhood.
Neighbors told the New York Daily News that Sanchez was a "good kid" and "quiet, happy" and that he collected baseball cards. Two other men shot in the Aug. 2 attack, 29-year-old Adam Waldropt and 22-year-old Gabriel Alvarez, suffered wounds to the abdomen and armpit or shoulder, respectively, and were taken to Jacobi, police said. Officers say the gunmen fled the scene on a moped after the shooting.
What Happens Next
Pugh is expected to appear in Bronx Criminal Court as prosecutors weigh formal filings and any bail recommendation. As in all criminal cases, the charges are accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
