A 79-year-old woman who was shot on the street in broad daylight in the University Heights section of the Bronx on Wednesday afternoon, June 17, had tried to gather up her scattered groceries, even as emergency personnel were trying to get her into an ambulance and transport her to a local hospital, one witness to the aftermath of the incident said. Another younger man was also shot during the same incident.

 

The NYPD said that at 1.23 p.m. on Wednesday, officers responded to a 911 call “at the intersection of West 183rd street and University Place” [Avenue]. A police spokesperson said, “A 79-year-old female sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen and a 26-year-old male sustained a gunshot wound to the left leg.”

He continued, “Both were transported to St. Barnabas Hospital in stable condition. No arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing.”

 

A trail of several red stains were seen on the sidewalk in the area where the shootings took place but it was unclear if they were dried bloodstains or paint or a potentially a mixture of both. [Nothing was painted red nearby.] The crime scene had already been taken down at that point.

 

Norwood News spoke to some residents at the location on Wednesday. Speaking in Spanish, one very gently spoken young male resident who said he was over the age of 18, who declined to be identified, and who was with his younger brother, told Norwood News, “I was at home [inside his building located at 2253 University Avenue] when I heard three shots.”

He continued, “As it was close, I heard a lady crying and I was worried. I went out to check it out and there was a woman there, shot.” Asked if he had called 911, he said, “When I exited, the police were already there, tending to the lady.”

 

Asked if he could see where the woman was injured, he said, “I saw that she was injured down in the stomach [area].” I saw a lot of blood. Asked if she was alone, apart from the police, he said yes. Asked if he had seen the other male victim, he said he had not.

 

Norwood News asked if he had gotten a shock and had been frightened to go out, the young man said, “Yes, because it was so close.” Asked if there were other people around at the time of the shooting, he said people gathered afterwards. Norwood News also asked if there were problems in the area, generally. The young man said, “In the afternoon, it’s calm. Nothing much happens. Today, yes, it surprised me.”

We asked if he had any idea what had prompted / caused the shooting. The young man said, “I think they wanted to get someone else and maybe the person [woman] was around there.” Asked if he knew either of the victims, he said he did not.

 

Another resident, Julio Diaz, said he saw the woman who had been shot very briefly. “An elderly woman, her walker was on the floor and she had a rag or something over her eye,” he said.

 

Diaz continued, “The police were tending to her and waiting for the ambulance to come.” Asked if there was a lot of blood, he said, “I didn’t see any of that, but thank God, she was still coherent. I mean she wasn’t incapacitated or anything. She was aware of what was going on.”

Asked if he had seen the woman’s injuries, Diaz said he had not. He said he thought there was something wrong with her head as she was holding the cloth up to it. “Might have been that she got grazed. I don’t know,” he said. Asked if he had seen the male victim at all, Diaz said he had not as he was focused on the woman.

 

One of the residents mentioned later that they thought they heard the woman mention to a police officer that she was coming from Manhattan when she got shot.

 

Another older male resident, Edwin Aguila, estimated to be between 30 and 40 years of age, said he also heard the shooting but hadn’t seen it. “I heard the shots in my house,” he said adding that he then started to see alerts on his phone. “You can see that most people are more and more afraid to walk around because any bullet doesn’t have a name.”

Aguila continued, “It’s a little bit kinda scary when you’re walking around and people are shooting around,” he said. “I heard the shots in my house.” He added that there were about five or six shots. “I got woken up by a neighbor and he said, ‘Did you hear that?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, I heard it because it woke me up from my sleep.'”

 

Aguila said he checked his phone, and added, “I saw that the lady who got shot in her stomach, that’s my mother’s friend. My mother started worrying and kinda got a little emotional. Started crying…”

 

As he said the words, Aguila’s own voice cracked a little.” Switching to Spanish, he said he then said to his mother, “Look, your friend took a bullet [inaudible].” Switching back to English, Aguila said his mom said, “Oh no but…” Aguila added, “She wanted to come outside and I told her, ‘No. Stay inside.’ I will let you know what’s going on.”

Aguila said he recognized the woman’s bag from the Citizens’ App images. “Her bag, the bag that she had, she walks with it for her food, my mother’s friend. I mean, my mother, she got a little bit shook. She wanted to go outside. I had to hold her in the house and say, ‘No, don’t go outside.’ Because you never know what’s going on.”

 

We informed Aguila that the police said the woman was stable. “It’s crazy because I was going to leave out of my house to come to the store!” he said. “And then I heard the shots. I was, like, ‘Oh wow!’ A lot of people at night time, they be like popping fireworks and you don’t know if it’s shots.”

We asked Aguila if he knew his mom’s friend, the female victim, and Aguila said, “She’s always by herself. She always leaves the house to go by herself. It was kind of not nice that she wanted to bring her stuff with her.” Asked if he meant she was trying to gather her shopping / groceries even after being shot and as emergency services were taking her to the hospital, Aguila said yes. “I don’t know where they took her stuff,” he said, referring to her groceries.

 

Aguila said the woman had actually asked his mother the day before if she wanted to accompany her when she went shopping to the supermarket on Wednesday. “And that was what happened,” he said. “Sometimes, God warns you but this neighborhood, sometimes, is quiet. We’ve been living on Loring for almost 40 years. We know everyone in this area. There’s always shootings. There’s always a shot.. someone always get killed or something like that.”

Asked if he feels safe in the neighborhood, Alguila said, “I feel scared for everybody. I know everybody. My ma knows everybody. Everybody knows everybody but sometimes, for something like that to be a shooting…”

 

Aguila asked if anyone had been caught. We informed him that the police said the investigation was ongoing but no arrests yet. He mentioned that there was a school around the corner. “Imagine if it would have been school kids walking around. If they’re doing that shoot out by daylight, what happens if there are kids walking out and getting shot? That’s why they should be having police officers standing at every corner… more police just to be alert and watching.”

Two police officers were seen standing on a block of West Fordham Road between Aqueduct Avenue and University Avenue about a 5-minute walk from the crime scene later that evening.

 

On Thursday, June 4, a 36-year-old man was arrested in the Kingsbridge section of The Bronx after two female police officers were assaulted inside the 50th Precinct stationhouse, police said. On Sunday June 7, a man was shot dead on East 207th Street near Decatur Avenue and Parkside Place in the Norwood section of The Bronx. On Monday morning, June 8, a man was hospitalized after being stabbed at Bedford Park Blvd subway station (the third stabbing to take place at the station since early November 2025).

 

On Saturday morning, June 13, a 31-year-old man was hospitalized following a stabbing in the Norwood section of The Bronx. On Tuesday, June 16, an emotionally disturbed patient picked up knife inside Montefiore Medical Center’s ER the Norwood section of The Bronx.

 

A 34-year-old man was slashed at 4.57 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26, at the intersection of Briggs Avenue and East Kingsbridge Road. As reported, 23-year-old Reyna Caceres was fatally shot also in the University Heights section in the early hours of May 28.

As reported, after citywide crime statistics for May were recently released, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch noted that overall citywide major crime is down, and the new Patrol Borough Bronx South command similarly saw a decrease in year-to-date index crimes in May. Conversely, much of the Northwest Bronx precincts (52nd, 50th and 46th) saw a rise in year-to-date crime in several major categories. Norwood News asked the commissioner if she had any comments in that regard during a press conference on Monday, June 15.

 

“The crime declines that we have seen generally, in the borough of the Bronx, particularly in the South Bronx, have really been historic across the borough so far this year,” Tisch said in part. “Of course, there are always going to be problem areas, problem precincts, and that’s why we use the CompStat process (NYPD crime data collection tool), and we do deployments of officers to places where we’re seeing crime go up.”

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.

 

All calls are strictly confidential.

 

*Miriam Quiñones contributed to this story.