A 40-year-old man has died following a shooting in Bedford Park, police said.

 

“On Wednesday, Oct. 2, at around 1.47 p.m., police responded to a 911 call regarding a male shot at East 198th Street and Bainbridge Avenue, within the confines of the 52nd Precinct, ” a police spokesperson said. “Upon arrival, officers observed a 40-year-old male with gunshot wounds to the chest and leg, unconscious and unresponsive.”

Police said EMS responded and transported the victim to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition, where he succumbed to his injuries.

 

There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing. The victim was later identified as Kavon Reid from Yonkers. A woman we spoke to who used to live at the Yonkers address listed for Reid said it used to be a homeless shelter run by a nonprofit “sharing community,” and closed in 2018. We were unable to speak to anyone living at the location now. The woman no longer lived there.

The area of the shooting is a block away from a gas rupture which occurred on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 at 379 Bedford Park Boulevard by Marion Avenue.

 

According to one source, the suspect is described as a male with a dark complexion, medium build, wearing a grey hoodie, black pants, grey sneakers, and a blue facemask. The source said he was seen fleeing eastbound in the direction of Pond Place.

One bystander we spoke to, who asked not to be identified, said he spoke to and gave a high-5 to the victim, who he said worked as an Uber driver, just a few moments before he was shot as he walked down E 198th Street in the direction of Marion Avenue. A few moments later,  the bystander said he saw the man coming back again in his direction, wounded from the gunshots, and believes someone had been lying in wait for him.

 

He said the victim had been friendly and normal a few moments beforehand when he spoke to him. The bystander said he didn’t know the victim very well, but just knew him to see from around the neighborhood. He said the victim reached the corner of Bainbridge Avenue and East 198th Street and then collapsed. The bystander said he immediately called 911 but said he could tell the victim was losing a lot of blood.

Speaking in Spanish, one employee at a nearby supermarket on the corner of East 198th and Bainbridge Avenue said, “Around 1.50 p.m., I heard the cashiers saying that someone was rushing down the street outside and when we went out, we saw that there was a person shot on East 198th and Bainbridge.”

 

Asked if people were frightened, she said, “Yes, very shocked. Around here, it’s very dangerous. Sometimes, aggresive people come into the store, rarely but sometimes armed with a knife, to rob it.” She said, in her opinion, they robbed food to sell it to buy drugs. Asked if they wore masks, she said usually not.

 

Asked if she felt more police presence was warranted in the area, she said she saw a huge decline in public safety in New York. “I’ve never felt as scared as I do now to live in the City of New York,” she said. She added that she only saw police in the neighborhood if something happened, when she said, they come quickly. “But there’s no [habitual] vigilence,” she said.

 

Another store employee said they didn’t know what happened until customers came in and told them there was a man shot outside on the sidewalk. Other nearby residents said they heard 3 to 4 gunshots.

 

Another 20-year-old resident who declined to be identified said of the shooting, “I just feel like it’s so crazy that it’s so close by.” He mentioned that where the shooting took place was in an area where a lot of elderly people lived. Asked if he felt more should be done about gun violence in general, the young man said, “Yeah, definitely, because I feel like the area is pretty calm most of the time, but since we are living in such a diverse area, and there’s a whole bunch of, like, different people doing their own thing, and they have their own problems, it could kind of get out of control, especially with all the drugs and stuff.”

 

Asked if he saw a lot of people taking drugs in the neighborhood, the young man said, “Homeless and, you know, people that are kind of struggling in the area. There’s not enough being done. So I feel like that could be the cause of the problem.” We mentioned that, of course, being homeless was not a crime and asked the young man if he was specifically referring to drug users or addicts.

 

“It’s just that I have been seeing a whole lot of people that do use different substances,” he said. “There’s a school a couple blocks down that way and whenever I walk in that direction, there are some people that just like [openly shooting up]. So I feel like if that was kind of resolved a little bit, then there might be a little bit of a change to, like, better the community.”

More to follow..

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-PISTAÍ (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crimestoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on X @NYPDTips.

All calls are strictly confidential.