11 people wounded, 2 killed, in overnight NYC shootings after Fourth of July holiday: cops
Five shootings erupted in The Bronx in the span of one hour and 40 minutes early Wednesday after the NYPD mobilized over rampant gun violence in the borough — with bullets flying across the Big Apple as the Fourth of July holiday came to a close, cops and sources said.
The bloodshed in The Bronx was part of 12 separate shootings in the city within eight hours Wednesday morning, leaving two people dead and 11 injured, according to police.
Police sources said the NYPD called a modified “level four mobilization” at around 10 p.m. Tuesday, following the July Fourth fireworks — in which 130 extra cops from the four other boroughs descended on The Bronx, which saw the majority of the holiday weekend’s gun violence.
The department called a full “level four mobilization” — the highest level response in which 600 cops flood the streets — last in 2020 amid rampant looting during protests in the city over the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the sources said. The NYPD also took the same action during crises such as the September 11 terror attacks and the Washington Heights riots in 1992, according to the sources.
The fatal victims Wednesday included an 18-year-old man shot on Morris Avenue in the Bronx, with a 19-year-old wounded in the same incident — drawing Mayor Eric Adams to the scene as police investigated.
The mayor did not make any public statements during his visit, which came about 24 hours after he’d touted the holiday weekend as “one of the safest in 19 years” in a tweet.
The 18-year-old was later identified as Moise Figueroa, as cops also announced an arrest in the shooting.
Ariel Velasquez, 19, and Ramon Santos, 28, were arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. A motive in the holiday violence remains unclear.
The other fatality was a 30-year-old man gunned down in upper Manhattan, police said.
The bloodshed early Wednesday nearly matched the violence over the entire holiday weekend — with 16 people shot in 10 separate incidents from July 1 to July 4, according to preliminary NYPD statistics.
The violence began around 12:40 a.m., when a 34-year-old man was shot in the right leg on Schley Avenue near Balcom Avenue in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, police said.
He walked into Westchester Square Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
About 20 minutes later, a 36-year-old man was shot in the leg and buttocks on Dewey Avenue near Swinton Avenue, also in Throggs Neck, police said.
He initially walked into Montefiore Medical Center, but was then moved to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was also listed in stable condition.
It was unclear whether the two shootings were connected.
Then around 1:30 a.m., a 20-year-old woman was shot at Bristol Street and Livonia Avenue in Brownsville, Brooklyn, cops said.
She was taken to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition. The motive for the shooting is under investigation.
A few minutes later, a 30-year-old man was shot in the face on Vermilyea Avenue near Academy Street in Inwood, Upper Manhattan, police said.
He was taken to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
No arrests have been made, and the motive for the deadly violence remains unclear.
Around the same time, a 29-year-old man walked into Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the leg. Police could not immediately determine the location of the shooting.
A 21-year-old man was shot in the right arm at East 176th Street and Grand Concourse, also in the Bronx, around 1:40 a.m., cops said.
He walked into Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, where he was listed in stable condition.
Then around 2:20 a.m., a 20-year-old man was shot in the right leg on Chester Street near Dumont Avenue in Brownsville, police said.
He also went to Brookdale with non-life-threatening injuries.
The second fatal shooting of the morning happened around the same time on Morris Avenue near East 182nd Street in the Fordham Heights section of the Bronx, cops said.
Two male teens were shot — an 18-year-old blasted in the leg, and a 19-year-old struck in the hip, police said.
The younger teen was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The older teen was taken to the same hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
Two persons of interest were taken into custody but not immediately charged, police said.
Police are still probing the circumstances leading to the shooting.
In East Harlem, a 21-year-old woman was shot around 3:55 a.m. on the grounds of the NYCHA’s Washington Houses on Second Avenue near East 99th Street, cops said.
He was taken to Metropolitan Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
Back in Brooklyn, a 42-year-old man was shot in both legs on Surf Avenue near West 30th Street in Coney Island around 4 a.m., police said.
He was initially taken to Coney Island Hospital, and then moved to NYU Langone Hospital–Brooklyn, where he was listed in stable condition.
At 7 a.m., a 27-year-old man walked into Columbia Presbyterian Hospital bleeding from a gunshot wound to the right leg — an injury police believe he sustained in a shooting in The Bronx hours earlier, cops said.
Then at 8:30 a.m. a 52-year-old man was shot and slashed at Harding Park in the Soundview section of The Bronx, police said. He was hospitalized in stable condition.
The Wednesday morning violence followed an already-bloody holiday weekend in The Bronx. The borough took the brunt of the shootings, with NYPD Chief Michael Lipetri saying it was “the most heavily deployed borough, as far as resources,” during a press briefing Monday.
“The NYPD monitors crime hot spots through various sources including historical analysis, our officers in the field, 311, and 911. Based on real-time information we adjust our deployment as needed,” a department spokesperson said Wednesday of its response in The Bronx.
Among the weekend victims was a 5-year-old girl who was critically wounded at around 7 p.m. Friday while sitting in her family’s car on East 214th Street in The Bronx.
Police said the gunplay was likely connected to a fatal Thursday night shooting and took place during a vigil for the victim of that incident, 26-year-old Justin Rodriguez.
Also in The Bronx, a 12-year-old girl struck in the shoulder by a stray bullet Saturday night while walking on Eastburn Avenue in Mount Hope with her aunt, who was shot in the foot, police said.
Other young victims of the holiday spate of gun violence included an innocent 13-year-old boy shot in the leg in Harlem at just before 1 a.m. on Tuesday.
Still, the violence paled in comparison to last year’s Fourth of July holiday weekend, which saw 55 people shot in 36 separate incidents, according to NYPD data.
In 2021, there were 42 victims in 29 shootings over the holiday weekend, down from the 77 people shot in 55 incidents for the same time period in 2020, the police stats show.
The last time the holiday fell on a Tuesday — as it did this year — was in 2017, when police reported 17 victims in 15 shootings from July 1 to July 4, according to the data.
And despite the recent spike in gunplay in The Bronx, overall shootings in the borough so far this year are down by 30% to 156 from the 225 tallied over the same period in 2022.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, speaking Wednesday at a memorial service for slain NYPD cop Miosotis Familia — who was killed execution-style while on duty in the borough on July 5, 2017 — said her office was laser-focused on cracking down on those responsible for the violence.
“I am warning anyone who even thinks of picking up a gun or knife in the Bronx that they will be prosecuted,” Cark said.
“The people of the Bronx deserve to be safe so anyone harming innocent people will be held accountable,” she added. We may even take some cases federally.”
Additional reporting by Rthvika Suvarna
