Man gunned down outside his Bronx home came to US from Jamaica to support his family

A Bronx man was fatally shot in a blast of bullets as he stepped out of his home Monday morning, police said.

Denver Bernard, 46, was struck three times by a gunman who stepped out of a dark-colored vehicle near E. 216th St. and Laconia Ave. in Williamsbridge just before 8 a.m. and opened fire, cops said. Bernard died outside his home.

He had recently immigrated to New York from Jamaica, a police source confirmed.

Bernard’s landlady, who did not want to give her name for fear of retaliation, described him as a “good person” who came to the United States to earn money for his family.

“I’m sad and heartbroken for him and his family,” the landlady, 39, told the Daily News.

“He’s been a tenant here for about a year,” she said. “He’s from Jamaica. He’s got kids back home. He came here to provide for his family.”

Bernard worked in construction, she added, recounting that she’d spoken to him just before the monstrous ambush.

“I saw him waiting on the porch to be picked up just before he was shot,” she said. “I walked out and said, ‘Good morning.’ He said ‘good morning’ to me and my kids.”

Minutes later, Bernard was dead.

Neighbors described hearing a barrage of gunshots and seeing Bernard’s body on the ground in a pool of blood.

“There were at least 11 shots. He was lying there dead. His body was there for hours. I got scared because my son had just left for school. Everyone was trying to find out who he was,” said neighbor Sydney Okpulor, 42.

A 59-year-old lawyer who did not want to give her name told the News that “there were two bursts of gunfire. At least seven and then another seven.”

“That person just emptied his gun,” the lawyer said, adding: “For someone to be shot like that, they were looking for him.”

Afterward, “It was just silence,” she said. “When I realized it was a body there was a blanket over him soaked with blood.”

Bernard’s landlady does not believe he was the intended target, telling The News, ”I think they got the wrong person.”

Bernard had been sharing his apartment with a cousin who was also from Jamaica, according to his landlady.

Police confirmed Bernard was heading to work when he was shot, and that he had no arrest record.

His killer is still on the loose.