One man was killed and at least 17 other people injured in 13 unrelated shootings across the Big Apple during a troubling 12-hour span, police said Saturday.
The mayhem touched every borough except Staten Island, beginning at around 9 p.m. Friday in the Bronx, when someone fired a bullet that went through Airleyda Lora’s Morrisania apartment window, striking her refrigerator door, according to police sources.
Lora, 28, was not injured.
About two hours later in Brooklyn, police found Leyshaun Morris, 29, with a gunshot wound outside of 203 Montauk Avenue in East New York, according to police sources.
He told responding officers he was watching fireworks when he felt a sharp pain in his calf and noticed he’d been shot.
His account echoed that of several other victims who said they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A 28-year-old man told police he heard bullets at the Queensbridge Houses around 5 a.m., then felt pain in his leg, police said. He was taken to Cornell Hospital in stable condition.
Around 1:40 a.m., near Academy Street and Nagle Avenue in Inwood, a woman told responding officers she was sitting in a vehicle with her friends when she heard gunfire and felt a pain to the right side of her torso, where she discovered a bullet wound, police said.
Around 4 a.m., at Taylor Avenue and Archer St. in the Bronx, police found Kevin Cabrera, 26, shot in the leg after he allegedly heard gunshots, according to police sources.
And a woman who was shot around 3:45 a.m. on Alexander Avenue in Mott Haven said she heard five to six shots, saw kids running then felt a tingling in her leg, Kizzy McCullun, 42, allegedly told police, sources said.
Two of the shootings involved groups of young people.
Three women and a man were injured when a fight broke out between “two large groups” gathered near the northern edge of Claremont Park and two men began shooting, police said. Joan Perez, 26, was wounded in his left foot, Jopis Acevedo, 28, suffered a gunshot wound to her right foot, Celyne Picharo, 21, was grazed by a bullet on her back, and Wednolin Ortiz, 19, was also shot in her left foot, according to police sources.
A second group of young people — two men in their 20s and two females, one of whom is 16 — were shot about a mile-and-a-half from the park around 5 a.m. when a suspect approached and pulled a gun, police said. All were taken to area hospitals in stable condition, according to police.
Other victims, according to police and NYPD sources, include:
- Ramon Machiote, 47, was found on Hutchinson River Parkway around 4:30 am with a gunshot wound to his left leg.
- Lorenzo Estrella, 18, was shot in the buttocks outside 1702 Underhill Avenue around 2 a.m. in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx after a dispute with a male suspect, who ran away.
- Toney Grant, 31, was allegedly shot in the abdomen around 4:15 a.m. near East 168th Street and Forest Avenue, police said. He was taken to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition.
- An unidentified victim walked into Interfaith Medical Center in Bedford-Stuyvesant with a gunshot wound around 6:50 a.m., police said.
- At approximately 11 a.m. in Brooklyn, police responded to a 911 call for a male shot in front of 334 Milford Street in East New York. The man was rushed to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
From Monday, when NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced the disbanding of the police undercover anti-crime unit through early Saturday afternoon there have been a total of 46 shootings, a spokeswoman said.
Law enforcement sources said the push to defund the police in the wake of George Floyd protests is contributing to the spike.
“They’ve handcuffed the police officers,” one source told The Post. “Cops are not going to risk their job and put themselves out on the line and possibly get arrested. Everybody watches the news and they know right now everything is leaning toward the Black Lives activists and their complaints. These cops are not going to do anything. None of them are. It has nothing to do with the crime team. These cops are worried about going to jail if they do something. It’s not worth the risk. If they want to kill themselves, then let them. It’s all about job security at this point.”
“We’re turning into Chicago,” the source continued. “This is what the public advocates. This is what everyone wants. The public are the ones who are going to suffer from it and cops are going to keep their hands in their pockets and you can’t blame them.”
Asked why the shootings are through the roof, a Bronx police source said, “Cops are finally listening to the public’s voice. Cops have taken a reactive position for a few years now. But now cops have taken a ‘who gives a f—’ approach. ‘”
Added one recently retired cop: “I haven’t seen it this bad since 1998.”