Aspiring young actor found slain in vacant Bronx NYCHA apartment, family shocked: ‘Had a whole future going for him’ (EXCLUSIVE)

By Andrew Califf and John Annese for the New York Daily News on May 21, 2023 at 6:33 pm

A young aspiring actor and dancer who appeared in shows like Tracy Morgan’s “The Last O.G.” was found dead, apparently shot in the head, inside a vacant apartment in a Bronx NYCHA complex, cops said Sunday.

Police discovered the body of Tristian Loran, 19, inside a 14th-floor apartment in the Castle Hill Houses on Havemeyer Ave. near Randall Ave. after getting a 911 call about 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

“He had a whole future going for him,” the victim’s sister, Victoria Sierra Loran, told the Daily News. “We were supposed to make it out of the hood together.”

Loran had a promising future in entertainment after landing minor parts in television shows like “The Last O.G.,” “Blindspot” and “Oprah’s Master Class,” his heartbroken mother, Selena Sierra, said.

“His sister was into dancing and he got into it and then got into hip-hop break dancing,” Sierra said.

Loran had a hole in his head when he was found dead but investigators are still working to confirm it came from a bullet, police sources said. The death has been deemed a homicide by the NYPD but no arrests have been made.

Loran lived with his family in a private apartment building about half a mile away from the Castile Hill Houses.

One neighbor said he saw strange activity around the apartment in recent months.

“I would see people in those ski masks that cover your whole face coming and going,” the neighbor said. “They would usually be with girls.”

The neighbor, who said he went to elementary school with Loran, spotted the young victim at least once outside the apartment in recent weeks.

Loran made some mistakes in life when he was younger, his mother said. “You can’t change the environment, the kids they go to school with. I wanted him busy and off the streets.”

Tristian got a scholarship to take lessons at the Dance Theater of Harlem, said his mother, who took him and his sister to dance competitions across New York and in South Carolina, Maryland, Connecticut and New Jersey.

In happy pictures from his adolescence shared by his family, he posed on film sets with celebrities like Morgan and Kevin Hart. But his life changed when the COVID pandemic hit.

“He closed his professional Instagram. He wanted to just stay at home and be a homebody,” his mother said, adding that he was in the process of getting his GED. “He was getting really good grades and so many shout-outs from his teachers.”

His interests changed.

“I think he grew out of dancing, he wanted to make it out with basketball or rapping,” his sister said. “He just wanted to get rich one day, get his family out the hood.”

But his mom said her son’s rapping didn’t take off.

“He had a thing for fashion, I wanted him to start a clothing line or something.”

Loran was one of seven siblings. All of them acted, danced, modeled and pursued extracurricular hobbies growing up.

“When you have no basketball courts — and the few here are always full — what are you going to do?” his mother said. “They have us in quicksand and we extend an olive branch, wanting our kids to do other things. We want our kids to have activities, but they just sink deeper. … All these kids get into stupid rapping. Offer them something.”

His mother found out about his death from one of his friends. She thought he was hanging out at a pal’s apartment, not an empty flat in the Castle Hill Houses.

About six months ago a family moved out of the apartment where Tristian was found slain, neighbors said.

“After that I started hearing noises over there,” said a next-door neighbor who declined to give his name. “I would hear a dog bark, a little shouting, a lot of door slamming. I guess people were just going in there to hang out.”

He was shocked when police showed up on Saturday.

“I open the door and the hall is filled with police. I heard crying through the door and now I’m starting to put two and two together,” the neighbor said. “I don’t want to know. I take care of my two kids. I don’t let them go outside because people shoot out here.”

Loran’s mother said she has little to say to whoever killed her son.

“I’m not gonna say, ‘You are gonna get karma, you are gonna get what’s coming to you.’ Because it doesn’t matter and it’s not gonna do anything.”

“We have to speak up,” she added. “The community has to stand together.”

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-man-killed-vacant-bronx-nycha-castle-hill-houses-tristian-loran-20230521-vpaly4v5vvekdjtreadxmmawvq-story.html