Exclusive: Widow of father murdered in Queens on Mother's Day speaks out
QUEENS, New York City (WABC) -- One year after Robert Cuvilly was gunned down outside his home in Queens, his widow spoke exclusively to 7 On Your Side Investigates about the experience and how it has impacted her family's life.
Susan Cuvilly said she relives the shooting daily.
"When I wake up every morning, it feels like it happened all over again," she said. "If it had not been for my kids, they are such a blessing, because I look at them every day and I don't have a choice but to get up."
NYPD detectives say the 38-year-old Cuvilly was ambushed outside his home Mother's Day morning 2017. Surveillance video shows a light two-door Mercedes Benz pass Cuvilly's house around 6:30 a.m. and ultimately park slightly up the street. It then shows a man exit that car and begin to pace in front of Cuvilly's house, watching it for roughly two hours.
Around 8:30 a.m., as Cuvilly was stepping out of the family vehicle parked in front of their home on 144th Avenue, detectives said the shooter opened fire, hitting Cuvilly in the head and hitting another man with Cuvilly in the stomach.
Susan Cuvilly said she and her children heard the shots from inside their home, and her daughter ran outside to perform CPR on her father.
"She saw him taking his last breaths," Susan Cavilly said. "It was a life-altering experience. That is what is most evil about it, because whoever you are, you know that his kids are going to see this. Forget me, my children are going to see this."
Cuvilly's close friend, Antonio Leon, was taken to the hospital and survived the shooting. Cuvilly did not.
Despite extensive surveillance video, police have not identified the shooter, who they say has a distinctive walk, or the owner of the getaway car, a light two-door Mercedes Benz.
"Especially on Sunday morning, on Mother's Day," Detective Michael Naus said. "Most people are just getting up to celebrate with their family and go out to church and stuff, and here this guy is coming out and shooting Mr. Cuvilly in the head."
Detectives called the shooting tragic.
"There's not much more devastating than that when you have a loved one let alone a parent, lying there and there's nothing you can do," Detective Robert Arnold said. "It's always going to hurt. It's always going to be a sore, an empty hole in their heart."
Detectives released extended surveillance video of the suspected shooter and suspect vehicle in the hopes someone may recognize them.
"We just need someone to come forward," Arnold said. "Whenever something happens, someone always knows something."
Susan Cuvilly described her husband as a loving spouse and devoted father. She said they had moved their Queens home from Brooklyn in the hopes of giving their kids a safer place to grow up, one where they could play outside.
"I feel like I married Superman and lost him," she said. "I just wish somebody would come forward and bring some kind of justice and some kind of peace to our family. I would like to one day tell this story and end it with but they got him. You know? I'd like to end this story without saying I don't know and that is the hardest part."
Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS for a $2,500 reward.
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