Photo courtesy of the NYPD
The 15-year-old male gunshot victim who was fatally shot in the Longwood section of the Bronx on Jan. 19, as reported, has provided the gift of life, via organ donation, saving seven people, according to LiveOnNY. The latter is a nonprofit, federally designated organ procurement organization (OPO) dedicated to saving lives, providing comfort, and strengthening legacies through organ, eye, and tissue donation.
Working closely with transplant centers and hospitals, LiveOnNY coordinates transplants, educates the public and healthcare professionals about donation and transplantation, and promotes the importance of signing up on the New York State Donate Life Registry.
LiveOnNY president and CEO, Leonard Achan, RN, MA, ANP said in a press release on Jan. 26, “LiveOnNY can now share an update that Josue Lopez-Ortega, a 15-year-old Bronx resident who tragically lost his life to gun violence, donated 8 organs, saving seven people.” Achan said these people ranged in age from 8 months to 68 years and were based in New York, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Achan added, “He donated his heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and pancreas, which make him an organ donor hero who will live on for generations to come. It is rare that organ donation leads to 8 organs transplanted. LiveOnNY was honored to fulfill his and his family’s wishes.”
As reported, Josue was one of two teenagers who were shot during an incident in the Longwood section of The Bronx on Saturday, Jan. 19. Police said that at around 8.52 p.m. on the day of the shooting, NYPD officers responded to a 911 call regarding shots fired in the vicinity of 998 Longwood Avenue, located in the vicinity of the Police Athletic League (PAL).
Upon arrival, police said officers observed two people with gunshot wounds. “The first victim, a 15-year-old male, sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was transported by EMS to NYC Health and Hospitals/Lincoln in critical condition,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “The second victim, a 16-year-old male, sustained a gunshot wound to the leg and was transported by EMS to NYC Health and Hospitals/Lincoln in stable condition.”
Police said there were no arrests and the investigation remains ongoing. The deceased was later identified as Josue of Fenton Avenue from the Laconia section of The Bronx.
On Friday, Jan. 20, the NYPD asked for the public’s assistance in locating the vehicle seen in the attached photos in connection to the incident.
Police said that around the time the incident occurred, an unidentified person was seen driving a gray Jeep Renegade westbound on Longwood Avenue from Fox Street. “At the same time, a group of individuals was exiting the Police Athletic League located at 991 Longwood Avenue,” a police spokesperson added.
Photo courtesy of the NYPD
“As the group was lingering in the front of the location, the jeep made a turn to travel back eastbound on Longwood Avenue from Kelly Street,” the spokesperson continued. “The individual parked the jeep in the vicinity of Beck Street and Longwood Avenue, exited the vehicle, and proceeded to run across the street on foot. The individual displayed a firearm and discharged it approximately three times into the group of individuals.”
Police reiterated that the two teen victims were struck as a result of the shooting and that the shooter then fled back into the jeep and was last seen driving away eastbound on Longwood Avenue.
PAL is New York City’s largest independent youth development, not-for-profit organization, according to its founders. “We operate diverse programs from Head Start, Day Care and Universal Pre-K programs; to elementary and middle school after-school programs; and summer day camps and summer Playstreets,” an extract from its website reads.
It continues, “We run evening teen centers; and college readiness programs, as well as youth employment, juvenile justice programs. Competitive and recreational sports for children of all ages is a cornerstone of our youth development strategy. In its over a century of service, PAL is continuing its evolution and remains a vibrant and vital New York City institution.”
As reported, the league hosts sports and other events to engage with youth from across the City, including support of the Saturday Night Lights program, an initiative which works to keep City gyms open on Saturday nights to allow youth the opportunity to play sports, when gyms would otherwise be closed.
Norwood News contacted the Police Athletic League (PAL) for comment on the Longwood incident. A PAL spokesperson replied, saying, “At PAL, our hearts go out to the families of the young people involved in the tragic incident that occurred last evening in front of PAL’s New South Bronx Center.”
The statement continued, “The top priority of the Police Athletic League is the safety and well-being of our children. PAL Teen Centers, located in the South Bronx and throughout the City, provide safe spaces for young people to learn, grow and engage in productive activities with programs designed to keep youth off the streets and moving forward in the right direction. We would also like to express our gratitude to all of our community partners including the NYPD for their support of our programs.”
Reacting to the Longwood shooting, and to another incident which, as reported, took place the same day at a school in Fordham Heights in which a 13-year-old boy was arrested for gun possession, Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said in a statement released on Jan. 20, “Yesterday’s shooting outside the Police Athletic League in Longwood that left one teen injured, and another mortally wounded, in addition to a school safety agent’s discovery of weapons in a 13-year-old’s backpack in Fordham Heights, makes it abundantly clear that the gun epidemic in New York City is far from over.”
She continued, “Our children deserve to learn and recreate in safe environments. We are grateful to the brave student who voiced their concern and helped school safety agents recover the weapons, but our children should not have to be superheroes at school or fear being gunned down on the street.”
She concluded, “Guns have no place in our streets, and they certainly have no place in our educational facilities and recreational spaces. These incidents and so many others highlight the urgent need for us to stop the proliferation of guns in our neighborhoods. I also want to thank the incredible team at the Police Athletic League for their commitment and dedication to our youth. Community centers are safe spaces, and we will not accept any attempts to jeopardize or undermine their work.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
A person arrested and charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.
Organ procurement organization, LiveOnNY, which was established in 1978, and according to its founders, serves a culturally and ethnically diverse population of 13 million residents in New York City, Long Island and the lower Hudson Valley.
It works closely with 11 transplant centers, nearly 100 hospitals, and several tissue and eye banks. LiveOnNY is a member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which oversees the organ transplant waiting list in the U.S. For more information, please visit LiveOnNY.org. For more information, visit LiveOnNY.
Last year, Norwood News reported on an extra special Thanksgiving for one mother and her family. Seven months after history was made in The Bronx, an emotional meeting took place on Tuesday, Nov. 22, between the world’s first HIV-positive to HIV-positive heart transplant recipient and her donor’s family. Westchester mom, Miriam Nieves, 62, who is HIV-positive, met the mom and sisters of deceased donor, 30-year-old, certified nursing assistant, Brittany Newton, who was also HIV-positive.
Anyone with information regarding either incident 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 https://crimestoppers.
All calls are strictly confidential.
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.
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