Yet another busy night for gang-related shootings as two more people are dead, six wounded in gunfire in Brooklyn, Manhattan and the Bronx, police said.
Three people were also taken into custody after police were involved in a gun-battle with a man who fired at them after they tried to stop him and another vehicle who was driving recklessly in the Bronx. Nobody was hit in the exchange.
Law enforcement sources say gang activity was at a “fever pitch” as shootings and retaliation were surging over the past few days. Much of the shootings are related to social media in which one group is insulting another, leading to street gun battles. In some cases, innocent bystanders have been hit by bullets and killed.
This follows last night’s shootings in which 2 people were killed and nine wounded and Tuesday night in which 8 people were shot city-wide.
In the first homicide, police from the 81st Precinct responded to a report of a male shot at 4:32 p.m. in front of 159 Chauncey Street, the Chauncey Gourmet and Grocery Corp., in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Cops found a 22-year-old man shot multiple times in the legs and torso. He was rushed to Interfaith Hospital, but could not be saved.
Detectives have identified the victim as Shyhiem McLean, 22, of Chauncey Street, only a building away.
This homicide comes only a day after another such homicide only five blocks from the homicide at 761 Herkimer Street on Wednesday night.
Two blocks away at 1 a.m., police from the 81st Precinct had yet another shooting in front of 360 Chauncey Street where they found a 30-year-old man shot twice in the abdomen and a 23-year-old woman shot in the right shoulder and chest.
Both were rushed to Kings County Hospital where they are now in stable condition.
The assailant is a male black, wearing a black sweatshirt and pants. He fled on foot from the location. It was not clear if this shooting was related to the earlier attack.
The second homicide 10:50 p.m. in front of 439 East 154 Street in Melrose, the Bronx when police from the 40th Precinct found a 27-year-old man shot multiple times at the scene.
He was rushed to Lincoln Hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival. The victim has been identified as Leon Vega, 27, of Honeywell Avenue in the Bronx.
Only 20 minutes earlier, police from the 41st Precinct observed two vehicles, a black BMW and a Dodge Charger driving recklessly at Hewitt Place and East 156th Street in the same neighborhood.
When police tried to stop the two vehicles, they attempted to flee, causing the BMW to crash. Police officials say the driver exited the car and began firing at police, who then returned fire. The suspect then fled and allegedly threw the gun into a park, before being nabbed by cops swarming in on him.
Two others in the Dodge Charger were also arrested nearby without a fight.
Charges against all three were pending. It was unclear when the earlier homicide nearby occurred or how long the victim was lying unattended. Detectives were also tracing the weapon recovered to see if it was involved in other shootings that have racked the borough.
Other overnight shootings
Oct. 22, 6:38 p.m. – A 19-year-old male was shot once in the left thigh as he sat in his car in front of 2315 Bruckner Blvd in Unionport, the Bronx. Police from the 43rd Precinct say the victim was taken to Jacobi Hospital, where he is in stable condition.
He gave very little description of the shooter in this case.
Oct. 22, 9 p.m. – A 30-year-old man was shot once in the left leg by an unknown person in front of 980 Trinity Avenue in the Forest Houses, a NYCHA development in Melrose, the Bronx.
The victim was taken by EMS to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition. He gave no information to detectives from the 42nd Precinct.
Oct. 22, 10:19 p.m. – A 34-year-old man was shot in the left leg as he stood at East 93rd Street and Rutland Road in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, say police from the 67th Precinct. The victim was taken to Kings County Hospital where police say he was “uncooperative.”
Oct. 22, 11:24 p.m. – A 19-year-old man was shot on time in the upper left leg at the corner of Lexington Avenue and East 119th Street in Harlem. The victim told police from the 25th Precinct that a male black in his 20’s, wearing all black, shot him and fled on foot.
The victim was in stable condition at Harlem Hospital.
There were also numerous reports of shots fired in all five boroughs overnight, with police stepping up patrols in the areas where the shootings have occurred. Federal authorities have also taken up the fight and have added their investigators and prosecutors to pursue firearms-related violence.
Anyone with information in regard to any of these shootings is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
