Bronx deli worker killed by cop recalled as a loving father and needless victim

Friends and family yesterday mourned Reynaldo Cuevas at his wake in Washington Heights, while questioning his fatal shooting by a police officer responding to a robbery at the Bronx bodega where the 20-year-old worked.

"I'm an NYPD Explorer and I feel like I shouldn't even be an Explorer anymore," said Julian Angulo, 18, of Inwood, who's Police Department's program for teens. "Why should I support the NYPD when they put my friend's family through this?" Angulo is a friend of Cuevas's sister, Nicole, a U.S. Marine.

While Angulo struggled with "mixed feelings," his friend, Mychele Bustamante, 19, of Fort Washington, fondly recalled nights where Cuevas bought beer for her and her friends while his girlfriend cooked up plantanos, chuletas and rice and the group danced bachata, was not as conflicted. "He was running to the police for help. Do you think they would have shot a white man running out of the store?" she asked.

Echoing the sentiments of other many other mourners, Bustamante postulated that Cuevas was not seen initially as a victim, but as one of the robbers, because he was a young, Hispanic male, and was profiled by the police officer as a perpetrator.

Cuevas was shot Friday by an officer, who the NYPD has yet to identify, after he came running out of the deli and collided with the cop, who had drawn his gun knowing that a robbery was in progress. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has said an initial NYPD investigation revealed that the gun accidentally discharged. The officer who fired is reportedly now on administrative leave. The Bronx district attorney, which has charged the three defendants apprehended that night with second degree murder, as well as robbery, said yesterday (Tuesday) its investigation is continuing.

The family's lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein, was outside the funeral home telling reporters "what this family wants is a (grand) jury empaneled, made up of people in the Bronx," to determine whether the officer, too, should face charges in Cuevas's death. Rubenstein said he will be subpoenaing the original footage of the surveillance video released by the NYPD.

Cuevas, whose own father was killed while being mugged two years ago in the Dominican Republic, was a loving father who doted on his 3-year-old daughter, Jaime, who also lived in the D.R., and was working in the bodega to support her. Another sister died at the age of 28, said friends, who were not certain of her cause of death.

Cuevas "used to walk me to the train at 6:30 in the morning so I wouldn't be by myself," recalled a sobbing Samantha Ramos, 17, of Bushwick. "He always made people laugh and was a really good person," she continued.

"If they thought he was a robber, why couldn't they just have arrested him? I didn't like cops anyway: They know they can take advantage of people, just because they have guns."

Evellis Carter, 24, who grew up with Cuevas in the Laconia section of the Bronx, said she has watched the blurry video police released to the