Man shot dead over a cigarette

As cities across America see a sharp rise in homicides, it appears that some thugs are now killing casually over the most trivial of beefs, and with a complete disregard for human life.

Certainly, New York City, which recently took away one billion dollars in funding from its police department amid an uptick in violent crime, reached a sickening new low this weekend.

A man was reported to have been murdered at the weekend in front of his wife, simply because he flicked his cigarette in the direction of the wrong people.

The victim, named as Curtis Holley, 36, was with his spouse in the Bronx on Saturday evening when he flicked his finished cigarette near a group of men, according to a report in the New York Post.

The three men were unhappy that the cigarette had been deposited in their vicinity, police said. After a short argument, one of the men pulled out a gun and blasted Holley in the stomach.

The incident happened shortly before 9pm at East 165th Street and Prospect Avenue

The man was taken to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“He flicked a cigarette,” a police source told the Post. “It just happened to be in the direction of three individuals. He didn’t mean to do it.”

As of Sunday lunchtime the man who shot Holley had not been identified by police and no suspects had been arrested.

With and epidemic of violence now engulfing the Big Apple, one activist group urged the city’s political leadership to step up and do something to tackle the scourge.

The group, which calls itself the NYC Moms for Safer Streets, said: “where is your anger? At what point, does someone dying matter? Guns being used to murder innocent people and you have nothing to say? Every person shot, every stabbing, every violent attack on your constituents you should speak out!”