Two people were shot in separate brazen day-light shootings in Brooklyn and the Bronx Sunday, in what might be gang disputes, police officials say.
There were three people shot on Saturday, including one fatality, also in a brazen daylight murder on a busy East Flatbush, Brooklyn, street.
In the first incident Sunday morning at about 9:40 a.m., a 31-year-old man was shot in the head outside 188 Parkside Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. Police from the 70th Precinct said they found the victim with a bullet wound to the head, his baseball cap left on a pile of trash covered in blood.
The yet unidentified victim was rushed by EMS to Kings County Hospital, where he was last said to be in critical condition.
Police do not yet have a description of the assailant, but some residents say there has been numerous shooting in this vicinity, much of it connected to gang warfare. Residents of the community were not surprised by the shooting, only that it occurred in daylight hours.
“The gangs the Woo and the Choo have this area hot now. This area never used to be this bad growing up.” said resident Sullivan Rogers, 32.
“This doesn’t surprise me, anyone, since the shootings over the summer I haven’t felt safe over here.” said Rachael Baker, 27.
“I saw the man bleeding from his head, he was rushed to the ambulance, he looked like he was struggling to breathe,” said Ebony Ceilers, 23.
On August 16, another man was shot to death on the Prospect Park side of Ocean Avenue, across the street from this latest shooting. There have been more than a dozen shootings in a three-block area around this latest gunfire, several of those victims were fatal and related to gang violence.
In the second shooting of the day, a 20-year-old was shot in the chest and hand in front of 4160 Hutchinson River Parkway near the Einstein Mall in Baychester, the Bronx, by four men in a black Acura with New Jersey Plates. Police from the 45th Precinct says the vehicle was briefly pursued by police but were lost on the nearby highway.
Police would not speculate on the motive in this latest drive-by shooting and had no further information on the attackers.
The victim was in stable condition at Jacobi Medical Center, police officials said.
Anyone with information in regard to any of the 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). You can also submit tips online at nypdcrimestoppers.com, or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are kept confidential.
