Tito Llanes, a 27-year-old man, was arrested this week on suspicion of killing a grandfather with a stray bullet during a birthday party in Harlem (NYC) in the fall of 2021.
Sylvester “Big West” Topping (57) was shot on the night of September 11, 2021 on East 115th St. near First Ave. in East Harlem, the NYPD said. He was hit in the face when a bullet fired across the street passed through a window and into a friend’s birthday celebration. He was pronounced dead at Metropolitan Hospital shortly thereafter.
Llanes, a Brooklyn resident, was arrested without incident at a NYCHA complex in Harlem and charged with manslaughter, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment. The stray bullet appeared to have originated during a “gang-related” dispute, police sources said, but did not provide details on why. He had a criminal record.
The unidentified fiancée of the victim who was on the scene when he was shot told the Daily News that she was surprised and pleased by the news of the arrest 18 months later. “I’m happy. I didn’t feel like there was going to be a breakthrough.”
“Many of us who were there didn’t know what happened, we didn’t know who was shooting, where the shooting was coming from,” recalled the fiancée. “Everyone was getting up to leave the party and I don’t know if something was going on.”
Topping had been arrested for gun possession in 2014 and lived in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx. He had three children, two stepchildren and three grandchildren, and was known for his love of cooking and his generosity, according to an online obituary. “If you liked to eat…he was your favorite person because the kitchen was his second home”.
All charges are mere accusations and those charged are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Also in 2021, the Mexican mother Gudelia Vallinas was killed by a stray bullet when she was caught in a shootout between rival gang members in Queens (NYC).