A 19-year-old male teen was hospitalized and is in stable condition after an apparent shooting on Saturday, Oct. 28, police said.

 

When contacted, an NYPD spokesperson said the incident occurred at 3.01 p.m. at 179 East 205th Street in Bedford Park. “We have a male, 19, shot once in the left leg,” the spokesperson said. “He was taken to St. Barnabas [Hospital] by EMS in stable condition.”

 

 

Earlier police radio recordings between different police units and the emergency dispatcher at 3.02 p.m. refer to a report of a male victim shot inside Williamsbridge Oval park in Norwood twenty minutes earlier who was later encountered by police inside 179 East 205th Street in Bedford Park, located between Lisbon Place and the Grand Concourse.

They said the caller said he had been shot in the back. Police reached the victim at East 205th Street at 3:05 p.m. as other officers raced to respond to the Oval park, where a kids’ Halloween event was just wrapping up.

 

Norwood News later spoke to several people inside the Oval park about the reported incident but nobody had heard any shots or seen police. However, people outside the Oval reported seeing police speed by at one point.

 

The NYPD dispatcher was earlier heard saying, “”Again, the caller states he was shot 20 minutes ago at the park… again, the caller is on the call with 911. He states he was shot randomly in the park twenty minutes ago.”

 

 

Norwood News later talked to some local Bedford Park residents about the incident also. A few said they did not hear anything and just saw the police searching the Bedford Park building on East 205th Street afterwards. Two others said they did not see the incident occur or hear any shots but that from speaking to the police, they understood from the video the police reviewed, it looked like the victim had been walking alone on the block, had a gun in his pocket and injured himself accidentally. They said they understood the victim had been waiting on a family member near his home.

Speaking in Spanish, one of the two said, “They [the police] believe it was he [the victim] who shot [himself],” she said. “It’s understood that in a moment of alarm and carelessness, he injured himself.” She said that according to the video police had seen, nobody else was seen running away after the incident. and the victim was not bleeding.

 

The woman continued, “The police checked the cameras and they saw that he spent a little while walking around well enough. There was no blood. Later, they lifted up his clothes and there was nothing but the impact [of the discharge?] on his leg – it was black. The confusion is he was walking very well.”

 

Norwood News contacted EMS for further clarification regarding the victim’s injuries. They responded saying they could not provide any specifics on the victim’s condition, and referred us to the NYPD for more information.

 

Based on a photo taken at a distance by Norwood News of the victim on Saturday, which we are not sharing due to HIPPA privacy restrictions, the victim did not appear to be bleeding but we’re unable to confirm if he was or was not. He was seen sitting up on top of the gurney as it was wheeled to a waiting ambulance by EMS personnel, and did not appear to be in a lot of pain though, again, we are unable to confirm if he was or was not.

ShotSpotter gunshot detection technology, used by the NYPD, uses sophisticated acoustic sensors to detect, locate and alert law enforcement agencies and security personnel about illegal gunfire incidents in real-time.

 

The digital alerts include a precise location on a map (latitude/longitude) with corresponding data such as the address, number of rounds fired, type of gunfire, etc. delivered to any browser-enabled smartphone or mobile laptop device as well as police vehicle MDC or desktop.

 

When contacted about the incident again on Monday, an NYPD press officer said he had no record of a shooting at the Oval on that day [despite the 911 call description by the victim, which we referenced during our conversation]. The spokesperson reiterated the report of a shooting outside 179 East 205th Street. When asked, the spokesperson was unable to clarify the extent of the victim’s injuries.

 

However, he did clarify that on the same day as the reported shooting occurred, police also received a separate call at 3.15 p.m. about a “dispute between room mates” on the street parallel to East 205th Street i.e. at 225 East 204th Street. This appears to relate to the earlier 911 conversation between the 52nd Precinct officers and the emergency dispatcher. “No weapons, no injuries,” the police spokesperson said of that dispute.