A man who walked free after he was busted by the NYPD’s anti-gun unit was arrested again on Thursday while allegedly carrying a loaded, defaced 9mm handgun in the Bronx, law enforcement sources said.
Tyquise Bell, 23, was busted on 141st Street and Cypress Street at about 5 p.m., less than a month after he was picked up on a gun charge by the NYPD’s new Neighborhood Safety Team before being cut loose, the sources said.
Bell was booked Thursday for criminal possession of a weapon and possessing a defaced weapon, sources said. He was also charged for an April 16 gunpoint robbery at a Bronx bodega — which he allegedly committed while out on supervised release.
The NST made 25 gun arrests in the first three weeks since its March launch, the NYPD previously said.
The Post was able to obtain and review records for 12 of those cases in an exclusive report earlier this week. The report found all but one of the suspects had walked free within hours of their arrests.
The NYPD posted to their Twitter account weapons that were recovered in NYC. NYPD/TwitterBell had been busted by NST cops in the Bronx on March 30 with a 9mm Taurus in his pant leg, court records showed. He allegedly told officers he only had the gun for two days, records showed.
“I found it for sure. Two days ago,” Bell told cops, according to the complaint against him.
He was cut loose on supervised release the next day because it wasn’t a bail eligible crime, according to records. The gun was unloaded and he had been charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, according to sources. He also had several sealed arrests, sources said.
It was a similar situation in other cases reviewed by The Post, with only one suspect — 44-year-old Dwayne Davis — held without bail after attempted murder and gun possession charges after allegedly shooting someone multiple times.
Of the 25 NST gun arrests reported by the NYPD, four cases had juvenile suspects, five had open felony cases and seven had previous convictions, The Post previously reported.
The NST was launched under Mayor Eric Adams amid a surge in city gun violence.
With reporting by Craig McCarthy and Gabrielle Fonrouge
