A 27-year-old man was shot execution-style in broad daylight in the rear of a Brooklyn park on Tuesday, just steps away from tennis courts that reopened Monday during the Phase 3 reopening.
The violence is just the latest episode in a citywide spurt of violence that has both the mayor and police department playing the blame game over how it all happened.
This latest homicide occurred at about 11:50 a.m. when police from the 73rd Precinct received a ShotSpotter notification inside Lincoln Terrace Park just off East New York Avenue and East 98th Street.
Cops entered the park where they found the victim on a walking path at a flight of stairs, his head up on a step, and a bullet wound to his head and chest. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.
The newly opened tennis courts were empty at the time of the shooting as temperatures soared to about 90 degrees.
The victim has not yet been identified and detectives were scouring the area for clues as to who the suspect may have been. Authorities have not yet made any arrests in connection to the incident, and the investigation is ongoing.
An unidentified man was seen screaming and was restrained by cops from the 73rd Precinct, “That’s my friend that got killed, damn, I can’t believe he’s gone.”
Another resident, Peter Jones, said he was going home from a day of work when he heard the shots.
“I was coming down East New York Avenue and I heard pop pop, I called 911,” Jones said. “He was bleeding heavy from the head. They say Black lives matter but we are still killing our own. It is sad.”
Another resident, Michael Thomas, was shocked at the continuing violence.
“They can’t say all lives matter and keep killing each other. We have to do a better job in the community of raising our people. We need to get these guns off the street.” Thomas said.
The shooting is the latest in a string of violence throughout the city resulting in 11 dead alone over the weekend. In the 77th Precinct, where Tuesday’s incident took place, shootings were up 21.4 percent year-to-date as of June 28, according to NYPD statistics. However, that spike represents just three additional incidents compared to this time last year, when there were 14 as opposed to 2020’s 17. Citywide, shooting incidents were up almost 130 percent as of June 28 — from 355 year-to-date, to 511 by this time last year.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he was “very concerned” about the spike, and that he plans to meet with the city’s district attorneys to discuss ways to curb the violence.
With contributions by Lloyd Mitchell and Meaghan McGoldrick
