Seven men and one woman were arrested and charged with various offenses including criminal drug and weapon possession, following a police raid on a Hull Avenue home in the Norwood section of the Bronx on Wednesday night, March 27, police said.

 

An NYPD spokesperson said that at around 10.04 p.m. on the night in question, officers from the 52nd Precinct responded to a 911 call regarding a person who had a firearm at the Hull Avenue home, located between East 207th and East 209th Street.

 

“Upon arrival, officers observed a 24-year-old male with a firearm,” the spokesperson said. “Officers pursued the male into a basement apartment of the location where he is apprehended.” Police said a 22-year-old male was also taken into custody after attempting to leave the location with a gun.

 

They said the execution of a search warrant gave rise to the discovery in the basement apartment of two additional guns and a large quantity of a controlled substance and that six people were later arrested and charged in addition to the initial two.

 

Police said Hector Desousa-Villalta, a 24-year-old man, Javier Alborno, a 22-year-old man, Yoessy Pino Castillo, a 20-year-old woman, Yerbin Lozado-Munoz, a 25-year-old man, Yojairo Martinez, a 42-year-old man, Miguel Vaamondes-Barrios, a 31-year-old man, Jefferson Orlando Abreau, a 39-year-old man, and Johan Cardenas Silva, a 35-year-old man, were each charged with criminal possession of a weapon, criminal possession of a controlled substance and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

 

The two-story structure appears to be a multi-unit, residential home and there were still some people seemingly living in the building on April 1, though we were unsuccessful in our attempts to speak with them. According to NYC Department of Finance records, it is a two-family dwelling.

 

The NYPD later said of the guns and drugs recovered at the location, “[Four] less guns on NYC streets thanks to NY Finest. Officers from the @NYPD52Pct in the Bronx recently responded to a dispute with a gun. As a result of their swift response & brief investigation, 4 illegal firearms, ammo, & narcotics were safely recovered & 8 arrests were made.”

 

In an interview with Pix11 News, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell, who was also joined by NYPD Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard, said of the raid, “Well, it was a 911 call for a person with a firearm. Our 52 Precinct personnel show up, and we quickly engage one person with a gun, chase him into a basement apartment. In that basement apartment, […] engages with a second male with a second gun. We extract them, make the arrest and we do a search warrant on the location.”

 

Chell continued, “We find two additional guns, one being a ghost gun. We find ketamine narcotics, which is used to enhance narcotics. The landlord says they’ve been squatting there, and unfortunately, these are also migrants. So why are our cops there a second time arresting people that had an open gun indictment walking the streets? One had an open attempted murder shooting in Yonkers.” He added that the attempted murder was recent.

 

Chell added, “So this is the problem. We’ve already made these arrests, and our cops are out there on the week of Officer [Jonathan] Diller’s death, Detective Diller’s death now, confronting evil a second time. They shouldn’t be in that situation. We have to have a discussion as to why they were out of jail.”

 

On the topic of recidivism, Chell was asked who the NYPD needed to speak with to address the problem. He said, “If the process works, the process works well. So who’s in charge of the process? The stakeholders, myself, the police department, the police commissioner, our district attorneys, our judges, our elected officials, we have to get together and see how we could do things better. Like I said, when the process works, the process works well, but sometimes it breaks down. What is that breakdown, and how are we going to fix it?”

 

On those arrested, Sheppard said he believed at least two had prior arrests. On the question of why police tend to focus so much on the topic of recidivism when they speak about policy, he said, “I think the recidivism issue is more about us thinking about victims. That’s really us being victim-centric, and recidivism is about the victims.”

 

Norwood News attempted to reach the Hull Avenue building owner for comment. We also reached out to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for comment on the prior arrests. We will share any updates we receive.

Norwood News spoke to some of neighbors and employees in the area about the incident on April 1 but nobody we spoke to had been aware the raid had taken place. We tried again on April 3 but again, nobody was available to comment.

 

In response to a separate question about crime numbers being down but people not feeling safe, for example, on the subways, Chell said, “Right, the [crime] numbers are the numbers, right? The [crime] perception piece? The community wants to see more cops, more cops in places like transit for instance.”

 

When asked about it being a delicate balance between reassuring the public but not making them overly anxious when they see a big police presence in the subways, for example, Chell said in part, “Well, we have to be strategic in where we put our cops. Transit, of course we’ve surged cops also down there.”

 

He continued, “The mentally ill and homeless? We’re going to take a new look at what we’re doing collectively with homeless and mentally ill people that we transfer above ground. What can we do better? What can the interagencies do better? We’re doing a lot but what can [we] do better? We always got to be looking.”

 

Asked about what happened to mentally ill people once they are taken out of the subways, Sheppard said, “That part of it is something that we’re concerned about. We don’t have the psychiatric wards that we had in the past for many reasons, but we have to come up with a solution that once we remove people, they can’t just bring themselves back on on the street.”

 

He added, “And even the removal or the visit to the hospital doesn’t ensure that they’re going to take their meds. The other part about the perception piece is that this is why we come here. This is why we do television. This is why we do interviews. This is why we go out and do our social media because we need people to know the efforts that we’re making to keep the transit safe.”

 

Those arrested are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court a law.

 

About two weeks ago on March 19, as reported, federal law enforcement officials joined police at a separate Norwood home at 3405 Gates Place and arrested a formerly deported man and seized cocaine and $3 million in cash, following the execution of a search warrant.

 

As also reported, during the course of a separate cocaine-trafficking interception and takedown by law enforcement in Yonkers on March 13, Carlos Almonte Palmers of Massachusetts was arrested and faces charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the first and third degrees. Federal officials said Almonte Palmers was deported from New York to the Dominican Republic in 2022. At a subsequent arraignment since March 13, in Manhattan Criminal Court, a judge ordered him held without bail.

 

Later on March 22, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced that day that three people were sentenced to a combined 31 years in state prison for selling more than 30 ghost guns in Yonkers after trafficking them from Washington, D.C. to Westchester County in 2022.