A hardworking livery cab driver and married father of four was gunned down “in cold blood” during a Bronx road rage clash early Thursday – marking the city’s first homicide of 2026 and one of four shootings reported just hours into the new year, officials said.
Issa Mbolo-Isac, 55, was found with a mortal gunshot wound to the head when cops responded to the intersection of Morris Avenue and the Cross Bronx Expressway in Mount Hope just before 7 a.m., police said.
Responding EMS workers pronounced him dead at the scene, authorities said.
Mbolo-Isac, an emigree from Burkina Faso, had worked as a rideshare driver for 10 years – the most recent five with Uber, according to Fernando Mateo, the spokesman for the  New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
Two men in another vehicle started arguing with Mbolo-Isaac after a “fender bender” and “chased him down [and] tried to physically take him out of the car,” Mateo told reporters.
“When he refused to get out of the car, he accelerated the vehicle,” Mateo said. “These two individuals turned around and shot through the window, shooting him twice, impacting him twice in the head.”
The NYPD wasn’t immediately able to confirm Mateo’s description of the slaying.
He described the victim as a “nice person” who “was never in trouble” and “has been exemplary in the line of work that he does.”
“This is very hurtful to us as an industry, to wake up New Year’s Day and know that one of your drivers was murdered, was shot twice in the head,” he said. “It was no easy news to swallow.”
Mbolo-Isac once owned a medallion, but sold it to buy a house back in Burkina Faso, according to Mateo. 
“He was a very good, hard-working man,” said the slain driver’s brother, Mounir Zoron, 35. “He worked very hard every day to support his family. He had no issue with anybody. He was trying to run away from these a–holes. He was trying to run away from them and they shot him. They’re criminals. They’re animals. He did absolutely nothing to deserve this.” 
The federation is offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who can provide information on “who killed Issa in cold blood,” Mateo said. 
“We know that we have the best detectives in the world … So we believe that in the next few days, we will have someone in custody,” he said, “but in the meantime, we are all heartbroken.”
The New Year’s Day violence began just five minutes after the iconic Times Square ball drop – with a 61-year-old man blasted in the left leg on Crescent Street near Pitkin Avenue in East New York, police said. 
He was taken to Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition, cops said. 
Then around 2:40 a.m., a 26-year-old woman was shot in the torso inside the Hotel Sunborn on New Jersey Avenue near Fulton Street in Cypress Hills, authorities said. 
She went to the same hospital, where she was listed in stable condition, and a person of interest was taken into custody with charges pending, police said. 
Two more people were wounded – one critically – by a lone shooter who opened fire near Yankee Stadium around 8 a.m., police said. 
The elusive suspect opened fire at three men who were walking along the Grand Concourse near East 161st Street, police said. 
A 31-year-old man was shot in the groin, ankle and leg, and an unidentified man also took a bullet to the groin, authorities said. 
Both men were taken to Lincoln Medical Center, where the 31-year-old was listed in stable condition and the other victim considered critical, police said.
The third man fled the scene before police arrived, and it was unclear if he was hurt, cops said.
The assailant fled the scene in a black SUV, authorities said. 
The motives for the early-morning string of shootings remain under investigation.

Advertisement

source