Local residents gave their reaction to Norwood News to a shocking, multiple daylight shooting on East 193rd Street and Morris Avenue in Fordham Manor, beside St. James Park in which scores of people had gathered on Tuesday evening, July 11.

 

As previously reported, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said during a press conference held at the crime scene on Tuesday night that at around 5.50 p.m. on Tuesday evening, video footage shows two people pull up on East 193rd Street by St. James Park on the scooter, wearing all black and ski masks.

 

He said the video shows the rear passenger got off the scooter and fired into the crowd, striking four people. Two were men in their twenties, one of whom was shot in the back and another who was shot throughout the body. One 6-year-old boy was shot in the leg, and one 3-year-old boy was also shot in the leg.

Chell said video evidence showed the shooters then fled on the scooter down East 193rd Street. “Right now, we don’t know who the intended target was nor do we have a motive,” he said.

 

The police chief continued, “Like I stated earlier, our hearts go out to the family and these victims, but this City, this department will not relent from taking these illegal bikes and illegal firearms off the street and our detectives up here in The Bronx will do whatever they can, and they will, to solve this case. If anyone has any tips, please call our hotline 1-800-577-tips All calls will remain anonymous.”

Chell added, “As a dad and as a parent in this City, I couldn’t imagine this happening to my kids – absolutely heart-wrenching and disturbing.” He added, “I’m glad to report though everyone is doing well and [are recovering] from their injuries.”

 

 

Norwood News later spoke to some local residents to ask what they saw or knew of the incident and how they felt about the shooting. One young man who said he saw the shooting in progress, who declined to be identified, and who seemed to be still in shock, told us, “I was just there when the…. when the stuff happened. One of the guys getting shot…that’s what I know.”

 

The witness added, “I don’t know what happened. I just seen someone pull out a gun and shooting at people.” Asked if the shooter was a young or an older person or if he could describe him, he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t see him good ’cause he had a ski mask on. I was running. I wasn’t paying attention. I was in shock.”

 

The witness said the shooting happened in the middle of the street (193rd). “He came with a scooter,” he said. “He shot up people and then he left.” Asked if he saw any of the victims, the witness said one of them, his friend, got shot in the leg. Asked how people reacted in the immediate aftermath of the incident, the witness said, “Everyone started running, even the people [in the cars? inaudible] started running.”

 

THE NYPD HAS released this video and is appealing to the public for help identifying the two people on the scooter who are sought for questioning in connection with the shooting of four people, including two children under 7 years of age, on East 193rd Street and Morris Avenue in Fordham Manor on Tuesday afternoon, July 11, 2023. Video courtesy of the NYPD

 

Asked how many people he saw injured, the witness said, “Maybe like three…a little kid, one of my friends, and that’s it.” We asked if he could tell if it seemed like the victims and the shooters knew each other, he shrugged and said, “Random… I don’t know.”

A female resident of East 193rd Street, Eddy VeFigueroa, also spoke to us about what she knew of the incident. Speaking in Spanish, she said, “Yes, I heard the shots. I was in a neighbor’s house and I heard four shots. I looked out the window and I saw people had taken off their shirts [to help as there was a lot of blood] and I said, ‘Well, there’s someone injured. I’m going to go down and see.’ I didn’t know if they were injured or dead. I went downstairs and I saw that everyone was around one person. I saw he was a young boy. He was around 7 and he was shot in the leg.”

VeFigueroa added, “He was half fainting. There was a lot of blood. There were a lot of people shouting. The police arrived and they brought the child to the hospital. Then, there were two others injured. One was muslim, a man…. well two men. One was shot in the back. The ambulance arrived while I was sitting here in front of the building and the police came. There were helicopters, a lot of activity on the street and that was all I saw.”

 

Also speaking in Spanish, VeFigueroa’s neighbor, Albamlly Peralta, said, “I saw from the window it was two young people with a gun.” Both women said the park was always busy with people playing basketball and tennis, and young people having barbecues.

 

Again, speaking in Spanish, another male resident, “José,” said he saw people on the ground after the shooting took place. Asked if there were a lot of people around when it happened, he said there were. We asked what happened after that and José said, “Everyone ran.”

 

We asked another male resident, who also declined to be identified, how he felt about the shooting taking place in his neighborhood. Speaking in Spanish, he said, “Well, it’s the beginning of the violence like during the pandemic…..I don’t know.. I imagine it was some type of vengeance or something because it doesn’t make any sense for someone to just come and shoot like that.. desperately like that at everyone.”

 

Asked if, to his knowledge, there was gang activity in the neighborhood, he said, “Probably yes.” Asked if he saw the victims after they were shot, he said he saw three or four people injured.

Local elected official, City Councilwoman Pierina Sanchez (C.D. 14), who Norwood News had earlier interviewed about the incident for an earlier story on the shooting, was overheard giving an interview in Spanish to another media outlet in which she mentioned she was the mother of a young infant [of about one year] and that to the mothers of the gunshot victims, she was sending “all her love and all her thanks to God [for their well-being and swift recovery]”.

 

Speaking in Spanish, another male resident told us, “It’s something that’s very sad because as we live in the area, we come here to hang out in the park and that something like this could happen to us, it’s a very sad thing. Moreover, so many children come around here so that they are not spending time in their apartments and for this to happen, it’s very sad.”

 

Again, speaking in Spanish, another female resident of the same group, “Rosa” agreed, saying, “It’s very sad because there’s an minor involved in this case and we have kids and tomorrow it could happen to us.” She added, “And then there’s the insecurity.” She said it was a shame that people could not just come freely to the park and enjoy themselves.

 

Asked if the park was always busy, Rosa said, “Yes, on a daily basis, from four in the evening, people come to hang out and enjoy themselves.”

 

Also speaking in Spanish, when asked for her reaction to the shooting, another female resident, Hilma Molina, part of the same group, said, “The same…one feels very sad that this could happen in a place where so many young people gather. We feel so sorry for the young people who have been injured.”

 

On Wednesday, July 12, police released a video and photo (attached above) of the shooters and is appealing to the public for help identifying them.

As reported, a 5-year-old girl was shot while sitting in a car with her father on June 30 in the Olinville section of The Bronx on the last day of Gun Violence Awareness Month. As of July 9, year-to-date shootings in The Bronx were down by 27.3 percent (173 v 238) compared to the same time last year and year-to-date shooting victims in The Bronx as of the same date were also down by 24.5 percent (210 v 278)).

 

In the 52nd Precinct, which covers Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Norwood, Bronx Park, and University Heights, year-to-date shootings were down by 55.6 percent (8 v 18) compared to the same time last year and year-to-date shooting victims were also down by 61.9 percent (8 v 21).

 

A spate of 16 reported Bronx shootings over the Fourth of July holiday weekend prompted elected officials, including Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, State Sen. Jamaal Bailey (S.D. 36), and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, along with various cure violence groups, members of the NYPD, and members of local precinct community councils, to hold a press conference at Lou Gehrig Plaza on July 6 in order to call for an end to the violence. The 52nd Precinct Community Council was represented by Jerry Landron.

 

Gibson said of the event, “Today, I joined with Bronx DA Darcel Clark, Assistant Chief Philip Rivera, local elected officials and cure violence organizations to condemn the gun violence we witnessed over the holiday weekend. Thank you to our Bronx DA, NYPD, and our cure violence organizations who are on the ground doing the work and preventing violence everyday.”

 

Anyone with information in regard to this 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.nypdonline.org/or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

 

All calls are strictly confidential.