On Halloween, 14-Year-Old Shot in Kingsbridge Heights

By JOSÉ A. GIRALT

The early morning conversations at Giant Sam Laundromat on Jerome Avenue and East 196th Street revolved around last night’s shooting of a 14-year-old boy in Kingsbridge Heights, hitting him in the leg.

“This neighborhood is being overrun by tigres,” said a woman in Spanish while doing her laundry. The woman, who did not want to be identified, used the Spanish word for ‘tiger’ as slang for thug or hoodlum.

The shooting happened within the vicinity, with reports from WABC-TV saying the boy was shot near East 193rd Street near St. James Park. The precinct’s ShotSpotter system had gone off, alerting officers to the shooting at around 2 p.m.

**A CLOSER LOOK** of the bullet hole in the store front window of Giant Sam Laundromat at 2734 Jerome Ave. in the Kingsbridge Heights section of the Bronx on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. The bullet hole was the result of a shooting believed by police to be gang-related and resulting in a leg injury to a 14-year-old boy. Photo by José A. Giralt

The police are reviewing surveillance video that captured the shooting. Early leads point to the possibility that the incident may be gang related. Police from the local 52nd Precinct did not respond to requests for comment. Meantime, the boy was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital on Halloween night.

Two teenagers doing laundry for their working-mother the morning after the shooting pointed to the taped-over bullet hole in the store’s front window. “We just came over from the Dominican Republic and our cousins told us about how dangerous this area is,” said the 17-year-old in Spanish, preferring not to give their name.

Police report that the shooting victim is expected to be okay.

The shooting got the attention of local Councilman Fernando Cabrera, who was “dismayed and saddened” over it while emphasizing that strides have been made to reduce gun violence.

“The Cure Violence Program just recently expanded into the Kingsbridge Road area,” said Cabrera, in a statement, referring to the program that looks to quell any potential fights against gangs. “And given this program’s track record of success nationally and in other parts of District 14, we can expect good results.”

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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.