A pair of white earbuds and some video detective work led police to a Brooklyn man who they believe gunned down a Burger King cashier in a case the mayor said reinforces his policy of funding and supporting cops.
Winston Glynn, 30, a former employee of the same East Harlem fast food joint he targeted, was arrested for the murder of Kristal Bayron-Nieves, 19, who tried to give the gunman what he wanted, but was killed anyway.
The young woman told her family that she wanted to get off the night shift because she feared for her life.
“We often hear the term a senseless murder,” NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said Friday. “That is not a cliché in this case. There was no reason to shoot this young woman. Money had been handed over. She was trying to comply with the gunman’s demands. She was killed for no apparent reason.”
Glynn, who has a pending case for menacing with a knife, walked into the Burger King at Lexington Ave. and E. 116th St. just before 1a.m. on Jan. 9, wearing a ski mask, black puffy jacket and, a give-away clue for cops — the cord from a pair of white earbuds hanging out of his pants.
Bayron-Nieves and the night manager were the only two employees in the place, serving two customers when Glynn burst in holding a gun. He pistol whipped the manager, knocking out two teeth and attacked a customer. Then he took $100 out of the register, but the greedy gunman wanted more, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
He then ordered the teenager to open another cash drawer, but she didn’t have the key. She was crouched down by the money box trying to appease him when he killed her.
“Ms. Bayron-Nieves scrambles to open the drawer,” Essig said. “She doesn’t have the key. That’s when he fires one shot, striking her and causing her death.”
Police found a 9 mm bullet fragment and a shell casing at the scene.
“When you see the video and think of this terrible incident — a senseless, brutal killing of a teenager who was doing the right thing, working on a Saturday night at 12:30 and had her life cut short — makes your blood boil and shocks the senses,” the head detective said.
Police believe that Glynn plotted to get away with the crime against his old employer by bringing a different set of clothes to the subway station and changing beforehand.
“He knew this place well. He preplanned it,” Essig said.
Glynn fled the scene, leaving cops little to go on to catch him.
“To say that our detectives started out with not much more than a shadow would be accurate,” Corey said. “That is how these cases often begin. As we see over and over again our detectives are determined and they are relentless.”
Investigators pored over hours and hours of surveillance footage from the 116th St. 6 train subway stop and recognized the suspect walk into the station hours before the deadly shooting wearing different clothing and carrying a backpack. Police identified him as the gunman by the way he walked and the white cord from a pair of earbuds hanging from his pants. They spotted him on camera going back into the station after the shooting.
Using the surveillance photos, detectives were able to identify Glynn as a former employee of the same Burger King, where he worked from April to December 2020.
They were able to track him back to Patchen Ave. in Brooklyn where they found the backpack that he was carrying and “distinctive clothing” that matched the surveillance footage, police said. No gun was found.
Glynn has four prior arrests, including weapons possession, menacing, assault and criminal mischief.
Outside the 25th Precinct stationhouse, Glynn shouted obscenities at passersby and news photographers as detectives led him to a car to take him to court for his arrangement.
“Where’s our reparations for 400 years of f-–king slavery!” Glynn yelled.
And “America is gonna burn!”
Corey speculated that the suspect may suffer from mental illness, but the accused killer also refused to make any statements to police and asked for a lawyer after his arrest.
The crime struck a chord with Mayor Adams, who met with the victim’s mother.
“I don’t come to press conferences of arrests,” he said at a briefing at police headquarters. “This one was so personal. For a cold-blooded killer to shoot a 19-year-old child after she complied. We have been saying this over and over again — too many guns on the streets.”
Bayron-Nieves hated the night shift and even got her mother to convince her manager to switch her to daytime work, her family told the Daily News, but the schedule change didn’t come fast enough to save her life.
Adams praised the hard work that detectives performed in the case and reminded his critics that behind the statistics in the city are families suffering due to crime.
“When people question my urgency of putting in place the right apparatus to give our support to the men and women performing these jobs they need to go visit Kristal’s mother. They need to see the pain on her face,” he said.
Glynn, who is facing murder and robbery charges, is expected to be arraigned in Manhattan Criminal court later Friday.

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