Shooting near Bronx park injures 6, NYPD says

Police said six people were shot near a Bronx park Wednesday night, marking one of the biggest shootings New York City has seen so far this year.

According to NYPD officials who spoke at a news conference several hours after the incident, two men rode a moped into St. James Park in Fordham around 8:15 p.m., parked it and approached another group of men hanging out underneath some scaffolding at the corner of East 191st Street and Morris Avenue.

They fired at the group nine times, striking six people, according to NYPD Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley, the commanding officer of the department's patrol borough Bronx.

The victims, all men in their 20s and 30s, sustained a variety of injuries: One was shot in the stomach, another in the right hand, another in the groin, another in the right leg, another in the torso and another in the right arm, Gurley said.

Some were reported to be in surgery overnight, and all were expected to survive, according to police.

Gurley said two victims were still on scene when police arrived, two others fled in a car and met EMS on the road, and two others entered two different hospitals on foot, including one in Queens.

Residents of the building adjacent to the crime scene said they haven’t felt safe for some time, though the shooting marked an escalation in the kinds of incidents they’ve noticed on the block.

“The situation is intense now,” said resident Teo Canuto in Spanish. “We don’t go out feeling confident anymore, with everything that’s been going on.”

“Right now it’s really bad,” said his neighbor Jose Valerio, who said he’s lived in the building for 12 years. “It just keeps getting worse.”

Resident Angel Gustodio stood outside, greeting neighbors as they entered and left the building and exchanged the scant information they knew about the shooting.

He said he often sees a large group of young men gathering under the scaffolding, and suspects they’re selling drugs.

“It’s not marijuana, it’s cocaine and fentanyl, too,” Gustodio told Gothamist in Spanish. “Three days ago, I saw them drag racing out here. And that’s really dangerous, because there are a lot of kids and a lot of old people who live around here. It’s gotten out of control.”

He noted that some of his neighbors are reluctant to call police because they fear retribution.

“We want the police to come here and help us,” he said. “They should send undercover officers to address this.”

NYPD officials did not directly respond to questions about whether they’ve responded to complaints about drug sales on the block.

Gurley said police had not yet identified a motive in the incident, which took place barely two miles north of the Mt. Eden subway station where six people were shot – one fatally – in February after a dispute aboard a 4 train.

The NYPD and U.S. marshals arrested a 16-year-old boy days after the shooting. Two other teenage boys, aged 14 and 15, were arrested more than a month later.

Gothamist’s map of NYPD shooting data shows that St. James Park has been relatively quiet within the last four years, with only one shooting incident reported.

Michael Mendez, 34, was shot and killed about two blocks south on April 23 after he and his brother went to confront someone who had robbed them earlier that day.

Even as shootings continue to decline citywide, NYPD’s Compstat data shows that incidents have increased this year in the 52nd Precinct, which encompasses Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge, Norwood, Bronx Park and University Heights. A total of 13 shooting incidents have been reported in the precinct so far this year, compared with 10 in the same time period last year.

The data does not yet reflect Wednesday’s shooting.

This is a developing story and will be updated.