Photo by Jose Miranda on Flickr
A murder investigation is underway by the NYPD after a 41-year-old man died following a fatal shooting in Edenwald, police said.
On Thursday, Dec. 8, at around 8.09 p.m., police responded to a 911 call regarding an aided, unconscious man inside 1851 Schieffelin Place, Baychester Houses NYCHA complex. The residence falls under Police Service Area 8’s Edenwald satellite base, located at 1165 East 229th Street, which serves New York City Housing Authority developments.
“Upon arrival, officers observed a 41-year-old male, unconscious and unresponsive with a sustained gunshot wound to the chest, within the 3rd floor hallway,” a police spokesperson said. “EMS responded to the location and transported the victim to NYC Health & Hospitals/Jacobi, where he was pronounced deceased. There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing.”
On Monday, Dec. 12, the NYPD identified the deceased as David Spralling, 41, from Jamaica, Queens.
The NYPD said Richard Brown, 58, of Edenwald in The Bronx was arrested in the connection with the murder case, and has been charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. A person arrested and charged with a crime is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, together with the CEO of Amalgamated Bank, is pushing for the implementation of a new method to enforce anti-gun trafficking provisions. Gillibrand held a press conference in Manhattan on Sunday, Dec. 4, and called for the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to help implement a new merchant category code for purchases from firearm retailers, including working with financial institutions to publish an advisory regarding the reporting of suspicious activity relating to firearm purchases.
Merchant category codes (MCCs) are four-digit codes assigned to credit card transactions that identify the primary purpose of the retailer. Until recently, gun and ammunition retailers did not have a unique MCC, making it difficult for financial institutions to recognize and report suspicious activity related to purchases from those stores.
Gillibrand is urging the immediate implementation of the newly created MCC for gun and ammunition retailers, and that all necessary support and resources be provided to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the relevant DOJ entities to assist with the implementation.
The senator believes that the utilization of the new MCC for gun and ammunition retailers will aid in enforcing the anti-gun trafficking provisions from her Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking and Crime Prevention Act that were included in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that passed earlier this year.
As also reported, a lawsuit has been filed, challenging part of New York State’s gun reform package, signed into law earlier this year. State law, A.7583-A, which took effect Friday, Dec. 3, requires social media networks to provide and maintain mechanisms for reporting hateful conduct on their platforms and to disclose how they respond to such reports.
Bloomberg reported the law has been challenged by the Volokh Conspiracy legal blog and the Peter Thiel-backed video site, Rumble Inc., which, Bloomberg reports, claims the law will hurt online services and seek to silence unfavorable but constitutionally protected expression.
Year-to-date shooting incidents (376) and shooting victims (441) in The Bronx are down by roughly 20 percent compared to last year’s 471 incidents and 559 victims according to the NYPD.
Meanwhile, overall index crime in New York City decreased in November 2022 by 1.2 percent compared with November 2021 (10,196 v. 10,323). Three of the seven major index-crime categories saw decreases, driven by a 14.1 percent decrease in rape (110 v. 128), a 6 percent decrease in burglary (1,231 v. 1,310), and a 5.5 percent decrease in grand larceny (4,187 v. 4,430).
A police spokesperson said of the latest gun crime stats, “As the NYPD works to reduce shootings in every New York City neighborhood, its attention remains on preventing people from ever becoming victims of gun violence. The proliferation of illegal guns on the city’s streets is an ongoing challenge, but the department’s strategies to fight this scourge continue to take hold.”
The spokesperson continued, “Gun arrests citywide are at a 27-year high, and increased another 3.9 percent (4319 v. 4155) year-to-date, with significant increases in Queens and the Bronx. These arrests have resulted in 6,638 guns seized citywide so far in 2022. These seizures include 356 ghost guns, which is a 76 percent increase compared with the 202 ghost guns seized by the department in the same period of 2021.”
They concluded, “Most importantly, this work has led to a 34.3 percent (92 v. 140) reduction of shooting victims across the city for the month of November 2022 compared to the same period last year. Year-to-date, shooting victims have declined by 15.2 percent (1465 v. 1728), which means 263 fewer people have been victims of gun violence this year than last – representing lives saved, families kept intact, and safer neighborhoods for all.”
Police Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell said of the latest crime statistics, “Every day, the NYPD’s singular focus is the safety and wellbeing of every resident, commuter, and visitor in our great city. As we near the end of this year, our department is seeing substantial, tangible progress toward our public-safety goals – and that is because of the dedicated work of our exceptional officers and civilian members.”
She added, “The women and men of the NYPD have continued to reduce shootings, take illegal guns off our streets, increase arrests to bring justice for crime victims, and improve police-community relationships in every New York City neighborhood. Their work has yielded positive results, with major crime down in the month of November 2022 compared to the same period last year.”
She concluded, “Additionally, as we enter the second full month of our Transit Safety Awareness Campaign, major crime in our transit system has begun to decline – a strong indication that our officers and strategies are making a real difference in the everyday lives of New Yorkers. We will continue these collective efforts, always working toward one objective: the safety of all the people we serve.”
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.
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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