Results tagged “gunviolence”

Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old Bronx student who was shot in the head Monday afternoon by suspects targeting someone else, was taken off her ventilator and remains in critical condition. The intended target spoke to the Daily News, "I'm so sad about what happened to her. I feel terrible. She's innocent, like I'm innocent."

Reclining her hospital bed yesterday, the 66-year-old Harlem woman who took a stray bullet in the leg in Harlem Wednesday sent a strong message to Mayor Bloomberg about what Harlem needs: "Bloomberg's getting in there and making the place look fancy and all of that, but it's not safe and people won't want to come here," Virginia Valree told the Daily News.

A 66-year-old Harlem woman became the second victim of stray gunfire this week in NYC. Virginia Valree was walking along Lenox Avenue in Harlem around 3:30 p.m. yesterday, carrying potatoes to deliver to a sick friend, when a bullet struck her left leg and knocked her into traffic on West 135th Street. "I'm horrified. All I know is I was just standing there and my leg gave in," Valree told the Daily News from her hospital bed last night. "I was on the ground. I was laying there saying, 'Somebody stop the traffic!' because I didn't want to get run over."

Police have arrested five young men allegedly involved in the altercation that led to the shooting of innocent bystander Vada Vasquez, a 15-year-old Bronx girl who was chatting with a friend after school Monday afternoon when a stray bullet struck her in the head, shattering inside her skull. She is currently in critical condition and on a ventilator. The bullets were directed at Tyrone Creighton, 19, who was hit in the back as he fled five men who had confronted him outside a bodega near Bronx Latin School. Police believe revenge was the motive.

A 15-year-old Bronx teen, not too far from her school in the Morrisania section, was shot in the head by a stray bullet yesterday afternoon. She had apparently walked into a dispute between two men—the Daily News reports, "As Vada Vasquez underwent emergency brain surgery, cops hunted for a bicycle-riding gunman who fired wildly at a man suspected of being a snitch." The apparent target of the gunfire, a 19-year-old man, was also shot in the abdomen and leg and taken to a hospital.

Earlier this morning, a shooting at the Norwood Palace Bar in Brooklyn has left one person dead and others injured. Around 3 a.m., patrons got into a huge fight and then, according to WCBS 2, "Two plain clothes officers with the anti-crime unit entered the bar in Cypress Hill, and that's when, police said, gunfire was exchanged."

A Bronx cop shot a teenager in the face after the adolescent reached for a BB gun on Holland Avenue yesterday afternoon. A plainclothes narcotics detective fired on 15-year-old Marcus Bonner at around 5 pm, hitting the aspiring rapper in the cheek after he made a move for the authentic-looking gun. "He makes like he's putting his hands up to surrender," a police source told the Daily News. "It's a fake surrender and he reaches for his gun."

A gunman in car shot and killed a 38-year-old driver on Lorimer Street between Ten Eyck and Maujer streets in a shockingly brazen slaying in Williamsburg this afternoon. The perp pulled up beside the victim — described by police as a Hispanic male — at around 2:30 pm and fired into the his car, hitting him in the side, according to police. The wounded driver crashed his car and exited the vehicle before being transported to Woodhull Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Yesterday around noon, a 16-year-old student at Bronx Regional High School was shot around 12:30 p.m. According to NY1, the teen told the police that the suspect was trying to rob him. And one student said, "They said the boy wanted his jacket and Paul said 'I'm not giving you my jacket.' And somebody said they was fighting at first, people was around watching and they didn't take it seriously. And they shot him."

Aha! After the NYPD had few details about the just-after-midnight Sunday shooting that left four people injured, the Daily News and a reader have some more information. According to the News, "Two groups of men brawled at the doorway of the Morandi restaurant at the corner of Waverly Place and Seventh Ave. just after 1:30 a.m., police said. One of the combatants pulled out a gun and fired wildly into the opposing group, police and terrified witnesses said."

Just after midnight, four people were shot at West 11th Street near 7th Avenue. At this point, all the police know is that none are likely to die. We'll check in later to see if there are any more details, but in the meantime, does anyone who was in the area know what happened? Update, 11/2: The NYPD had a couple more details this morning—the four victims were black males, shot in the legs and arms (no ages). No arrests have been made.

At a vigil, the family of Malachi Cotton begged for the community's help in finding the 16-year-old's killer. The teen was shot multiple times at a bus stop outside Metropolitan Diploma Plus High in Brownsville, Brooklyn on Monday afternoon. City Councilman Charles Barron added, "If you see something, say something. And all those who don't want to snitch, tell me. I'll snitch. If you're afraid to snitch, I'll snitch. They say snitches get stitches, bring it. You tell me and I'll do the snitching."

Yesterday afternoon, a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot outside Metropolitan Diploma Plus High in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Malachi Cotton was standing at a city bus stop by when, the Daily News reports, "Three men approached him around 3:15 p.m., police said. The armed trio, who were targeting Cotton, fired several shots at him and then fled."

The 18-year-old who is accused of firing a gun into the air—and killing a 92-year-old woman in her Bronx home—pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder. Jamal Blair is being held without bail and his lawyer is trying to explain that his client has had a tough childhood, "In 1993 he was 2 years old and witnessed his father murder his mother. He stayed with his mother's body until his grandparents found discovered what happened almost a day later. It still stays with him."

Although Jamal Blair, the 18-year-old arrested for killing a 92-year-old Bronx woman, allegedly confessed to police, he told reporters last night, "I didn't do it. I was framed by the police. The police did it, they framed me, man. No justice."

The police announced that an 18-year-old was arrested in connection to the death of a 92-year-old woman in her Bronx home. Sadie Mitchell was apparently struck by a stray bullet on Tuesday evening, when a shot was fired during a fight between two groups of youths. Witnesses told cops that Jamal Blair, 18, was the shooter and he allegedly confessed. A source tells the Daily News, "He told cops he thought he was shooting up in the air. The lady was 15 feet [above ground] in her home when the bullet hit."

Family and friends of the 92-year-old who was fatally killed by a stray bullet in her Bronx home on Tuesday are still reeling from the tragedy. Sadie Mitchell's daughter Sharon van Rooij said, "When someone is in their 90s, it's inevitable that they're going to die, but not like this... Not at the hands of some punk. I hope [the killer] will fry. I don't care how old you are -- 18, 19, 30 or 12. I hope you fry."

Neighbors are outraged after a 92-year-old was fatally shot by an apparently stray bullet that entered her home on East 224th Street in the Williamsbridge section of the Bronx. According to the NY Times, "It was unclear whether Ms. Mitchell was the intended target, but the police said it appeared some youths had gotten into a fight on the street" before the 5:30 p.m. incident.

Police are searching for clues in the Sunday evening murder of 18-year-old Brian Scott. Scott, known as a one of urban inline skating's "rising stars," was fatally shot at the Parkside Donut and Kennedy Fried Chicken on Flatbush Avenue, while two others were injured. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "We have no reason, at this time, to think that Brian Scott was anything but an innocent bystander. We are still, obviously, doing an aggressive investigation."

Last night around 8:30 p.m., a man walked into the Parkside Donut and Coffee Shop on Parkside Avenue in Brooklyn and opened fire. Three people were shot; one of them, 18-year-old Brian Scott, died from his injuries while the other two, a 20-year-old man and a 23-year-old man, are in stable condition.

On Wednesday, Mayor Bloomberg unveiled the latest efforts in his crusade against illegal guns coming in NYC by allegedly showing how easy it would be to buy a gun—without a background check or with a straw purchaser—at gun shows in Nevada, Ohio and Tennessee. Of course, one town wasn't too pleased with our big city mayor sending in investigators for the sting operation at a local gun show.

Yesterday, the funeral of 13-year-old Kevin Miller was held in a Jamaica church, a week after he was hit by a stray bullet from gang gunfire. Queens DA Richard Brown also announced that a second suspected Crips gang member was arrested for Miller's murder, "This case is another example of the mindless gun-related violence and street gang mentality that turns our streets into battlefields and too often takes innocent lives and recklessly endangers public safety."

In August, a man was killed in a South Street Seaport parking lot, apparently after a dispute that occurred on a party boat that had been docked at Pier 17. Now the NYPD says they have arrested a suspect.

A sixteen-year-old Queens boy has confessed to firing the the shots that killed thirteen-year-old Kevin Miller just after the end of the school day at nearby Campus Magnet High School. Nnonso Ekwegbalu of Laurelton was arrested on Saturday night and admitted to being the one to pull a gun and fire the two shots that left Miller dead and injured a 17-year-old employee of the car wash where the fight that sparked the gunshots was taking place. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters yesterday that there was an arrest and that Ekwegbalu has "made statements" in regards to the Cambria Heights shooting. Reports did not mention if they found the orange shirt that Ekwegbalu was allegedly wearing that initially led them to arrest and quickly release a Campus Magnet football player soon after the shooting.

Earlier this week, a woman was fatally shot when she was caught in the middle of afternoon crossfire in the Bronx. Aisha Santiago, 25, had been on her way to the laundromat with her 9-year-old son and managed to push him out the gunfire. Now, a man has been arrested and charged with her murder.

Police are searching for a 26-year-old man who shot his mother three times in their Queens home, allegedly because she was on his case. A police source tells the Daily News, "She was on him about his son. He's a preemie, sick in the hospital, and she was giving him a piece of her mind." The mother is expected to survive.

Yesterday afternoon at around 3:30 p.m., a woman—who was trying to shield her 9-year-old child at the time— was fatally shot in violent crossfire on East 146th Street in the Bronx's Mott Haven neighborhood. According to MyFox NY, "Aisha Santiago, 25, was just coming home from doing laundry when someone opened fire on East 146th Street," and some witnesses think that the gunfire was from rival gangs, possibly the Bloods and Crips based on the groups' colors, while police suspect it might be the Latin Kings and another gang.

Yesterday morning, a shooting occurred at 345 Flushing Avenue at Classon, and in the afternoon, The Local reported, "The police say a 51-year-old man was shot three times and critically injured inside the Flushing Deli at 345 Flushing around 10:30 this morning. He was shot twice in the face and once in the shoulder and taken to Bellevue Hospital." Now the Daily News has more details: In spite of being shot, construction worker Brian Delamore, who has been working at a hotel site on Franklin Avenue, "managed to stagger out of the Flushing Deli in Clinton Hill before collapsing on the sidewalk, police and witnesses said." A deli worker said of the shooter, "There was no argument. The guy just came up to him." Delamore is still at Bellevue; it's unclear whether there is a motive. The incident occurred in the 79th Precinct (which says it represents the Bed-Stuy section).

After the early evening drive-by shooting that killed two and injured another on Thursday night, a victim's mother spoke out. Antoine Stokes, 20, and 15-year-old Steven Hill were fatally shot by gunmen in a SUV as they sat on their Bedford-Stuyvesant stoop, while Derrick Henry, 14 or 16, was wounded. Stokes' mother Ernestine said her son was in the wrong place at the wrong time, adding he even worried about the violence in the neighborhood, "I just want you to catch his killer and get these crimes off the street because it's too bad that you have to lose your child over stupidness that he didn't do." Yesterday, the Daily News said that locals were weary of the drug-related violence, with a school principal saying, "There's a street turf war around here. We've been putting up with this for too long."

Yesterday, right before 6 p.m., gunmen in an SUV opened fire on a group of people sitting on a stoop in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Steven Hill, 15, and Antoine Stokes, 20, were both shot multiple times and later pronounced dead while Derek Henry, (either 14 or 16), is in stable condition at Kings County Hospital. The NY Times spoke to witnesses, who said "the three youths were caught off guard when a car drove by and a barrage of shots — as many as 20, some estimated — poured out its windows"; one added, "I saw people running and screaming, scattering all over the place. Any place they could find a place to hide." According to the Daily News, "A three-way feud among rival groups sparked" the violence. "The beef involved the gunned-down group, which hung out on Bainbridge St., and competing crews from the Brevoort Houses in Ocean Hill and the Jackie Robinson Houses in Manhattan, the police source said." The Post, which suggests that Hill may have been the target, reports, "Community activist Tony Herbert said cops told him the shooting was in retaliation for a robbery earlier in the day."