‘Me and my babies need these guys put away.’ Newburgh widow calls for justice after husband shot, dies in her arms

Officers located Darius Serrano, 29, in the area of 177 Lake Drive. Serrano had sustained two gunshot wounds – one to his upper chest and another to his bicep.

Blaise Gomez

Jul 28, 2022, 10:14 AM

Updated 808 days ago

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Quan Stroud spent a warm summer night hanging outside with her husband, Darius Serrano and friends. 
Never did she think those would be their final moments together.  
“When I turned my head, I heard two loud pops.” 
Stroud says she went upstairs to get ready for bed when she heard gunshots outside their apartment on Lake Drive.  She ran outside and found the 29-year-old shot and struggling to breathe.   
“I told him to keep going and that I loved him and that me and the girl’s need him,” said Stroud. “He was trying to catch his breath.” 
Those were Stroud’s final words to her husband. What happened next is a now living nightmare. 
Her husband, and the father of their two young girls, died in her arms around midnight while she tried to perform CPR.  
 “We were home where we were comfortable. We’ve been here going on seven years,” said Stroud. 
Their home was full of happy times for the young family, but it’s now the site of unbelievable tragedy. 
Quan says they’re lost without Serrano, who meant everything to them. 
Police have yet to catch his killer, and Quan says she won’t rest until they do. 
“We didn’t deserve this. I just want justice. Me and my babies need these guys put away.”  
Police put out a release asking witnesses to come forward. 
Quan says she saw and knows who shot her husband and gave that information to police. 
Serrano was killed in the same apartment complex where several people were stabbed three weeks ago. 
His death follows a string of near-daily shootings in Newburgh for the past year.