Cops: Man arrested in killing of teen working at NYC Burger King

A combination of meticulous backtracking through video surveillance tapes and hours of old-fashioned police work led Thursday to the arrest of a Brooklyn man on charges he carried out what cops said was the senseless and brutal slaying of a 19-year-old woman working at a Manhattan Burger King early Sunday morning.

Winston Glynn, 30, was charged with shooting and killing Kristal Bayron Nieves as she frantically tried to open a cash register to give Glynn additional money on top of the $100 he had already grabbed at the restaurant, police said.

"We often hear the term 'a senseless murder,' that is not a cliché in this case; there was no reason to shoot this young woman," NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said at a news conference Friday at police headquarters to announce Glynn's arrest. "Money had already been turned over, she was trying to comply with the gunman’s demands. She was killed for no apparent reason."

NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said that while detectives initially had very little to work on except a surveillance video from the restaurant at 116th Street and Lexington Avenue, they keyed onto a pair of white earbuds worn by the suspect in the restaurant and then started working back through videos gleaned from cameras in Manhattan, the subway system and the streets of Brooklyn where Glynn lived. Detectives noticed a similar pair of earbuds in the suspect’s pockets, Essig said.

With information gleaned from dozens of cameras, Glynn was traced back to Brooklyn, where he was arrested without incident Thursday night.

The killing of Nieves "makes your blood boil and shocks your senses," an angry Essig told reporters.

Glynn, who has four prior arrests, had, in 2020, worked at the Burger King where the killing took place, but he didn’t know Nieves, Essig said.

Police charged Glynn with first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, according to Essig.

Police said Nieves was killed by one shot to the torso. The case is being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

The slaying of Nieves shocked many in the East Harlem community where the crime occurred and brought a commitment from Mayor Eric Adams, who was at the news conference, that the killer would be brought to justice.

"For a cold-blooded killer to shoot a 19-year-old child … we have been saying this over and over, there are too many guns on our streets," Adams said.

Glynn's defense attorney couldn’t immediately be reached.

By Anthony M. DeStefano

tony.destefano@newsday.com

Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.