Results tagged “shooting”

Recent parolee Akin Webster, 25, surrendered to police in connection with a drive-by shooting that killed a member of the Bloods gang in Arlington on Nov. 16. The suspect — who was paroled in March after serving three years for slashing a rival's face — is accused of shooting 25-year-old Kameek Sears because the victim didn't "watch out for" Webster during a recent fight in prison, the Daily News reports. Webster has also been charged with shooting and wounding Sears' friend, Donte McKee, 23. Four members of the Bloods were killed in Staten Island last month, prompting some gangsters to skip town to stay safe.

In the aftermath of three November shootings in which innocent Bronx teens were gunned down, friends of one of the victims are urging witnesses to come forward. Following the death of 17-year-old Issi Ariel Dominguez — who cops believe was not the intended target when a gunman fired into a crowd after a party this weekend — friend Ruthie Gomez told NY1: "You better snitch, we are going to find him. We are going to find whoever did it, I don't care."

Defying conventional wisdom, crime is not on the rise despite the miserable economy. Police records reveal that as the city faces a 10.3-percent unemployment rate and record numbers of homeless families, "the number of major crimes is continuing to fall this year in nearly every category," the Times reports.

A cop shot in the line of duty last year is suing the NYPD for outfitting him with a bulletproof vest and a holster that he claims weren't up to snuff. Officer Shane Farina, 39, was wearing a department-issued vest when he was shot point blank by a suspected fare-beater who grabbed his partner's gun in a Queens subway station last year

A Staten Island gang war that has claimed the lives of four men so far this month has gotten so intense that members of the Bloods are apparently skipping town to stay safe. According to the Daily News, the internal squabble between Bloods members from New Brighton and those from Port Richmond and Mariners Harbor turned deadly on Nov. 7, when an argument over a girl lead to the shooting of Jermaine "Big Den" Dickerson in an Arlington housing development.

This is a pretty crazy time to be a teenager in the Bronx. Another adolescent was gunned down this weekend — this time fatally — with a bullet meant for someone else.

Just one mile from the spot where 15-year-old Vada Vasquez was shot in the head by a stray bullet, a 16-year-old girl was caught in the crossfire after a Bronx house party, the Post reports.

The crooks who robbed a 64-year-old for his television — but couldn't escape with the unwieldly flatscreen — shot the victim because his achy knee kept him from following their orders.

The family of the 15-year-old girl who took a stray bullet to the skull last Monday has something incredible to be thankful for today: doctors expect the teen to make a full recovery. After performing brain surgery to remove the bullet from Vada Vasquez's skull, doctors put her in medically-induced coma and cautioned relatives that she would most likely suffer some degree of brain damage. But now surgeon Narayan Sundaresan believes that although the bullet damaged her left temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for speech, she still "can make a full recovery."

The 15-year-old Bronx girl who was put in a medically-induced coma after taking a stray bullet to the skull has spoken for the first time since the incident, eight days ago. A source tells the Daily News that Vada Vasquez's first word was "Mom." Her condition has been upgraded to stable and a spokeswoman at Lincoln Hospital says, "She's improving. She's in stable condition and recognizes family members."

One of the undercover cops involved in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old who was pointing a gun at officers fired eight rounds, according to the Post. Three officers contributed to the 15-bullet salvo (up from 14 in yesterday's papers) that left Dashawn Vasconcellos with 11 separate wounds, three to the back, one to the chest, one to the right arm and the rest to the legs. The shooting occurred after the teen fled from police who spotted him leaving a park after hours and allegedly raised a gun at officers. While Vasconcellos' friends and relatives have complained that officers responded with excessive force, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said it was too early in the investigation to make a definitive call, but he stated: "On the surface, the shoot looks clean."

The mother of the 16-year-old Bronx boy accused of shooting a rival gang member and an innocent young bystander gave her first interview with the press yesterday. In a teary sit-down with the Post, Zelita Mighty explained that she tried to keep her son, Carvett Gentles, away from the gang culture that grips the area around East 169th Street and Boston Road—where her own father was shot nine times in the back when she was a teen. But at some point over the summer, she claims "Zico" [Carvett's nickname] went from being an engaged student who would "proudly bring home attendance and science awards" to a distant young man mixing with his older cousins and uncle—members of the Gorilla Stone Blood gang.

Police gunned down an 18-year-old in Far Rockaway when he pointed a 9mm handgun at officers. When four plainclothes cops approached Dashawn Vasconcellos and two other men as they were leaving Bayswater Park after-hours at around 11:30 pm, Vasconcellos fled. Officers pursued the teen to Bay 32nd Street near Beach Channel Drive when Vasconcellos allegedly spun around and aimed the handgun at police. "After repeated orders to drop his weapon," officers shot the teen in the torso and legs, a police source told the Daily News. Vasconcellos was pronounced dead about an hour later at Jamaica Hospital. According to NY1, the other two men were not arrested.

The off-duty NYPD cop who shot a man following a Long Island bar brawl fired the round after the altercation was over, according to the lawyer representing victim Atiba Watkins. The fight that lead to the shooting started when the 22-year-old NYPD officer, whose name has not yet been made public, got into a shoving match with the 23-year-old victim's cousin on or near the dance floor of the Irish bar Napper Tandy's in Miller Place on Thursday.

Vada Vasquez, the 15-year-old Bronx student who was shot in the head Monday afternoon by suspects targeting someone else, was taken off her ventilator and remains in critical condition. The intended target spoke to the Daily News, "I'm so sad about what happened to her. I feel terrible. She's innocent, like I'm innocent."

An off-duty New York City cop shot a knife-wielding man Thursday night after a bar brawl that started in the Strong Island watering-hole Napper Tandy's and spilled out into the street. John Gomez, 27, was one of the many witnesses in the crowded bar at 12:30 a.m. when two men began fighting in the front foyer.

Though prosecutors say he gave a written and videotaped confession, the 16-year-old Bronx boy accused of shooting two teens on a crowded street Monday afternoon pleaded not guilty at his arraignment yesterday. As his mother wept in the third row of the courtroom, Carvett Gentles and four other young men—all members of the "Gorilla Stone Blood" gang—were arraigned and sent to Rikers Island without bail. Gentles lawyer maintained his client's innocence, insisting, "He does well in school, he comes from a nice family." But some members of this "nice family" happen to be the older gang members who allegedly handed Gentles the gun and told him to shoot—because he was the only one without an arrest record.

Former Nets star Jayson Williams is expected to plead guilty to manslaughter charges for the 2002 shooting of his limousine driver. According to the Star-Ledger, his sentence, in a deal with prosecutors, would be 18 months. Williams was previously convicted of charges related to covering up the shooting (and acquitted of aggravated manslaughter), but was facing a retrial on reckless manslaughter charges; if convicted of reckless manslaughter, he could have faced up to 10 years in prison. Williams shot Costas "Gus" Christofi in his NJ mansion when he was showing friends a shotgun.

A 16-year-old boy has confessed to the Monday afternoon shooting that left a Bronx girl in a medically-induced coma. Carvett Gentles, a sophomore at Bronx Leadership Academy who rarely attended class, had no criminal record before this week, and police believe that's why the .40-caliber pistol used in the shooting was passed to him, in a street version of "hot potato." The four other young men who were with him Monday afternoon all have extensive arrest records, and those boys—also members of a Bloods gang spin-off called "Gorilla Stone Blood"—passed the gun around until it ended up in Gentles's hands.

Police have arrested five young men allegedly involved in the altercation that led to the shooting of innocent bystander Vada Vasquez, a 15-year-old Bronx girl who was chatting with a friend after school Monday afternoon when a stray bullet struck her in the head, shattering inside her skull. She is currently in critical condition and on a ventilator. The bullets were directed at Tyrone Creighton, 19, who was hit in the back as he fled five men who had confronted him outside a bodega near Bronx Latin School. Police believe revenge was the motive.

The annual firearms discharge report issued by the NYPD indicates that 2008 saw the smallest number of police shootings since formal records of such events were first kept, in 1971. According to the report, last year 125 police officers fired their weapons, compared with 148 officers opening fire in 2007. Cops also burned through fewer bullets last year, busting a total of 354 caps, compared with 588 in 2007. But the New York Civil Liberties Union says we still don't have the full picture, and last week they sued the NYPD for complete access to the department’s internal reports.

The family of a man killed by cops during a Cypress Hills bar brawl are alleging a police coverup. The brother of a man was shot and killed by undercover cops is demanding that the NYPD release surveillance video that allegedly shows the 43-year-old Kevin White pointing a gun at officers moments before his death.

More details have emerged about the police shooting in Cypress Hills that left one dead early on Sunday morning. At around 3 am, two undercover cops responded to reports of a wild bar brawl — which apparently stemmed from a dispute about a spilled drink. When the plainclothes officers arrived at the Norwood Palace Sports Bar on Fulton Street, 19-year-old Donovan Wilson ran out of the venue and pointed a .25-caliber handgun at cops, the Daily News reports. The officers — who apparently were wearing their badges around their necks — fired at the teen, hitting him in the chest, elbow, and leg. Wilson survived, though according to the Post, he was shot a fourth time, perhaps before police arrived.

Earlier this morning, a shooting at the Norwood Palace Bar in Brooklyn has left one person dead and others injured. Around 3 a.m., patrons got into a huge fight and then, according to WCBS 2, "Two plain clothes officers with the anti-crime unit entered the bar in Cypress Hill, and that's when, police said, gunfire was exchanged."

A gunman in a white Cadillac Escalade opened fire on a Clinton Hill bodega last night, striking a pregnant woman and two men who were standing inside. The perp began shooting at the DeKalb Gourmet Deli near the corner of DeKalb Avenue and Kent Avenue at around 7 pm, hitting a 15-year-old boy in the arm and torso, a 20-year-old man in the leg, and a pregnant 24-year-old in the upper thigh.

Teenagers: they ruin everything, especially when armed. Lots of people around Brooklyn loved the 40-cent Tuesday wing deal at Buffalo Wild Wings sports bar in Fort Greene—even Brooklyn Cyclones players were known to wing it there on Tuesdays. But now the restaurant has discontinued the promotion because of multiple shootings and a stabbing involving adolescents who descended upon the establishment Tuesday night. Thanks a lot, minors!

Two shootings and a stabbing in Fort Greene yesterday "were the result" of a cheap chicken wing event at a nearby eatery, according to the commanding officer of Brooklyn's 88 Precinct. High school students from across the borough flocked to a 40-cent wing promotion at Buffalo Wild Wings on Atlantic Avenue — then things got dicey. Here's how NYPD Captain Anthony Tasso described the crimes to the Times blog The Local:

Cops arrested two men yesterday suspected of shooting and killing a 24-year-old, chucking their guns in trash can in front of a police precinct, then reporting to police that they were the victims of a shooting. Officers at the 73 Precinct in Brownsville spotted the suspects ditching their firearms inside a garbage can before entering the station house on Thomas Boyland Street just after 6:15 pm.

It was previously reported that the Army psychiatrist who went on a deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood Thursday had been on the FBI's radar over some Internet postings about suicide bombers. Now ABC News has it that Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan had been trying to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, and U.S. intelligence agencies knew about it months ago, because these al Qaeda suspects were under electronic surveillance. One of these is the former imam of a Virginia mosque who praised Hasan for the shooting on his website (cached).

A few hours ago, a man opened fire in an Orlando, Florida high-rise office building. According to the Orlando Sentinel, the suspect is a former employee and the shootings occurred at a transportation consulting firm. CNN reports, "Investigators are looking for a man wearing a blue Polo shirt, gray vest and blue jeans. 'We're in a search mode for the gunman,' said Jim Solomons, a spokesman for the sheriff's office." Update: Now it's reported the gunman was captured and that one person was killed and five others were wounded.