Man Who was Arrested for Gunning Down Sorai King has Been Charged With Murder

A man has been charged with murder in connection with a 2025 shooting in which a 20-year-old was fatally shot inside a deli in the Bronx. While the suspect was already in custody, investigators allegedly linked him to a second homicide that occurred the same day during a drive-by shooting, according to authorities.

A 22-year-old man identified as Marlon Smith was charged with murder on May 18, in connection with a shooting incident from 2025. The victim was identified as Sorai King, who was fatally shot inside Bronx Deli. Smith was arrested on April 17, 2025.

While in custody, investigators said they connected Smith to a second homicide. Authorities identified the victim as Aneik Chung, 18, who was killed in a drive-by shooting on Nov. 17, 2021, according to law enforcement officials.

In addition to the two fatal shootings, Smith is also facing an attempted murder charge after investigators alleged he shot another man in the leg outside a housing complex in Throgs Neck in October 2021.

King, 20, was shot in the chest and neck inside a deli on Bronxwood Avenue near East 217th Street in Williamsbridge at about 1:30 p.m., according to police. Emergency responders transported him to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

A grieving family member told the New York Daily News that King had been on his way to pick up food for his mother at the time of the shooting.

“He was going to the store for his mother. He was very loving. He went to the store, and he never came back,” the victim’s 15-year-old niece,e Nana King, said after the attack. “We only knew something went wrong when the detectives came,” she added. “He was very loving, and if I had any problems, I could always run to him,” she said, before dissolving into tears.

In the 2021 shooting incident that claimed Chung’s life, witnesses saw two gunmen firing from inside a passing black SIV on Bruke Avenue, near Barnes Avenue in Williamsbridge, around 5 in the evening.

According to investigators, one of the shooters, believed to be the driver, reached through an open window and fired over the roof of an SUV at a group of people standing on the street. Authorities said Smith became the third suspect arrested in connection with the drive-by shooting within a five-week span.

Nickoy Brown, 20, was arrested on April 9, while Jeivany Sterling, 24, was charged on April 30 in connection with the killing of Aneik Chung.

Brown and Sterling were both indicted on murder charges in Chung’s death and ordered held without bail. Officials said Smith’s arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending as of May 19.

In the nonfatal shooting of Throgs Neck, Smith blasted a 41-year-old man in the left leg as he was fleeing in front of a Schley Avenue residential tower near Balcom Avenue around 1:40 pm, according to the police.

Smith was the third man to be charged in that shooting, following the arrests last month, this year, and also in 2022.