Neighbors are sharing their reaction to a nonfatal shooting that occurred of a man in the back on East 207th Street in Norwood on Tuesday, Sept. 10. As reported, the NYPD released photos of the two men sought in connection with the incident and are appealing to the public for help identifying them.

 

According to the NYPD, officers from the 52nd Precinct were called to 245 East 207th Street at 1:01 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10, where they discovered a 41-year-old male shot once in the lower back. The victim was transported to Jacobi Hospital in Morris Park by EMS in “stable” condition.

 

Police were canvassing for video of the incident on Tuesday. The suspects were described as both wearing dark clothing and black ski masks, who fled eastbound towards Perry Avenue after the incident. One shell casing was recovered at the scene.

Hours after the shooting, and as the street began to flood with parents arriving to pick up their children at the recently opened Success Academy charter school located on East 207th Street, formerly St. Brendan Catholic School, one woman responded to news of the shooting, saying, “Oh my God, that’s crazy! There’s a school here!”

 

A male resident of the area walking past the building where the shooting occurred was asked if he felt safe walking through the area at night. He replied, “No. I try not to walk around late at night. It used to be safer.”

Meanwhile, after learning of the shooting, “Iris” a 30-year resident of Norwood, said, “If they would have told me [East] 209^th [Street], yeah, Bainbridge [Avenue], down the block, I expect it, but here?” She continued, “I walk the neighborhood at four, five in the morning. It’s safer than, say, Fordham. It’s safer than [East] 183rd [Street].

 

Iris added, “I feel that because of all the gentrification that they’re doing over there, it has escaped to over here to the end of The Bronx, so now everyone over there is moving here, and the landlords are just renting to anyone; they don’t care.”

One resident of the block alleged the man who was shot would often barbeque on a grill at the corner of East 207th Street and Bainbridge Avenue and believed some type of dispute led to the shooting. One Tuesday, Sept. 17, a second source from the block would confirm that the man who used the grill was indeed the victim shot.

 

The grill has remained chained to a tree since the day of the shooting.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.