A 31-year-old man was slain Monday night, and two people were wounded in overnight shootings in Queens and the Bronx overnight, police reported.
Even so, shootings have come down citywide in recent weeks. During a NY1 interview Tuesday morning, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said that his department was still dealing with bail reform in which some individuals arrested for offenses such as car theft wind up back on the streets with leniency — and then commit additional crimes.
The one fatal shooting occurred at 6:37 p.m. on Oct. 12, when a man was shot at 1486 Vyse Avenue in Charlotte Gardens, the Bronx.
Officers from the 42nd Precinct found Dante Young, 31, of East 183rd Street in the Bronx, shot in the torso and unconscious. EMS units pronounced him dead at the location.
At this point in the investigation, police have not yet established a motive for the shooting, or a possible suspect. No arrests have been made.
In the other Bronx shooting, an 18-year-old male was shot in the right lower leg at 6:53 p.m. on Oct. 12 in front of 1354 East Gun Hill Road in Laconia.
Officers from the 49th Precinct reported that an unknown person shot the teen and fled.
The victim was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in stable condition. No further information was available on this shooting.
Then early Tuesday morning, cops in Bushwick, Brooklyn came to the aid of a shooting victim who was spotted driving erratically through the neighborhood.
Members of the 83rd Precinct pulled the victim over at the corner of Myrtle Avenue and Bleecker Street at 2:20 a.m. on Oct. 13. When they went to confront him, the officers discovered that the 30-year-old driver had been suffering from a gunshot wound to his thigh.
Upon further investigation, police determined that the victim had been shot moments earlier at the corner of Seneca Avenue and Palmetto Street in Ridgewood, Queens by an unknown person.
EMS units brought the injured driver to Woodhull Hospital in stable condition.
The case was referred to the 104th Precinct Detective Squad in Queens for further investigation.
Anyone with information in regard to these shootings are 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.
Shea concerns on bail reform, civil unrest
During his Tuesday interview, Shea continued to highlight bail reform as being problematic for the city as some of those being issued desk appearance tickets instead of being jailed are committing new crimes while awaiting trial for their offenses.
“There are significant changes in how arrests are processed so now when we arrest for auto theft, we issue a desk appearance ticket to those people and then they are released,” Shea said. “We have example after example of people stealing cars, committing burglaries, commercial and there are no consequences. People have forgotten about the struggle to adapt to new laws and we want to keep people and property safe – this should not far out of our memory – we’ve been struggling with it all year.”
And while Shea said subway crime has dropped 24% for the year, he acknowledged an increase in robberies in mass transit. There were 457 robberies in the system this year so far compared with 394 last year. This despite ridership being down 90% at one point, and now about 30% down now.
Shea said Chief of Transit Edward Delatorre and his officers, both in uniform and anti-crime, were doing a “yeoman’s job” keeping crime down, but he understood that some categories were going up despite their work.
The commissioner also said he expects civil unrest, mostly protests to increase as the Election Day approaches in November. He said each type of protest was being dealt with in particular ways, most notably Borough Park, Brooklyn protests where journalists have been attacked by crowds of Hasidim Jews. Yesterday, one of their leaders Heshy Tischler, was charged with inciting a riot.
The department issued a memo indicating that after Oct. 25, they expect an increase in public protests.
Preparing for protests, anticipate protest size and intensity, into 2021, internal memo and he said, “the lesson of 2020 is we should prepare for the worst on the heals of the pandemic.”
“Our job is to prepare for the worst and hopefully it is not needed,” Shea said. “We have different responses depending on where it occurs and we certainly police different as the facts are in front of us. Each protest is different and we must adapt to conditions on the ground depending on whether there is law breaking, looting – we prepare for all eventualities. One theme though is people have the right to protest and we must be fair about how you do it according to the conditions you see.”
Suspect sought for shooting
Detectives from the 44th Precinct have released a video of an assailant who struck a 39-year-old store clerk with a firearm during a dispute on September 27 in the Bronx.
Police say that at 7:30 p.m. that Sunday, a assailant pulled a firearm and struck the clerk with his gun inside the bodega at 928 Morris Ave., in Concourse Village, the Bronx. The clerk was taken to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition.
Cops described the suspect as a Black man between 30 and 40 years of age, standing 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighing between 160 and 180 pounds.
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit tips online at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
