A shooting outside the constituency office of NYS Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie in the East Bronx, south of Baychester, at East Gun Hill Road and Fenton Avenue has left one person in in critical condition, police said.

 

According to an NYPD spokesperson, police said one person was shot in the head at the location on Monday, April 17, around 3 p.m. and is in critical condition at Jacobi Hospital. There is no suspect description available at this time they said. No further description was available on the victim yet either police said.

 

The NYPD later cordoned off the area and a helicopter was seen hovering over the vicinity of the shooting location, potentially looking for the shooter.

Nobody was available at the assembly speaker’s office and the door was locked. The shutters were seen pulled down a few hours later. The assembly speaker, like the majority of State elected officials, are in the throes of finalizing the overdue State budget, and reportedly reached a tentative agreement with Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday that would give judges more discretion to set bail for serious crimes.

Meanwhile, outside the speaker’s constituency office, a pool of blood, a shoe, and what looked like a baseball hat were seen on the sidewalk  in the area cordoned off by police.

During a unrelated interview with Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson on Monday, Norwood News asked the borough president if she had any comment on the incident.

Gibson said in part that she had just seen a notification about a shooting at the location, had not yet spoken directly with the 49th Precinct and added “As far as I know, the perpetrator is unknown, and we’re trying to identify the victim.”

She added, “We believe it’s a male but we don’t know the age just yet.“

We spoke to one man from Laconia, Ketony Vazquez, about the incident who said he had been close by at the time it occurred though he did not see it.

He said, “I was in the yard minding my business and I heard what sounded like fire crackers,” he said, adding he stayed inside but later realized they were gunshots. Asked how many, he said he thought about four.

Vazquez said he’d been living in the area for 15 years and had never heard a gunshot. “I just hope they catch the guy,” he said.

Norwood News attempted unsuccessfully to reach the speaker for comment by phone and email.

One local female business owner in the area who did not see the shooting as she was not there when it happened, said she recently moved her business from one of East Gun Hill Road (the side where the shooting took place) to the other side to get away from “trouble-makers” on the first side. She added it was not the first time a shooting had taken place in the vicinity and that police presence had been more apparent after a previous shooting (during which she said nobody had been hit) but had since died down again.

Another female business owner who was inside at the time the shooting occurred and didn’t have a direct line of vision of it but heard it, said, “It was quick. I heard four bullets like pipe, pp-pipe, pipe, pipe!” She added, “I didn’t want to get up to look. I could see straight across but you couldn’t really see [from where] the bullets were fired from here as it was around the corner, but you know… a vehicle speeded up and drove away fast. You could hear it.”

We asked in which direction, and she said “Down the road,” seeming to indicate Gun Hill Road. She also said it was not the first time that something happened in the area and then someone got into a vehicle and drove off quickly.  She continued, “It was a while before anyone came out.”

Asked if she saw the victim, she said, “No, no, no. You can’t see it from here and I didn’t go out.” She added, “Nobody run towards it. Everybody stayed until the police came from where I could see.”

Asked if there was anyone out on the street when it happened, she said, “Only the deli (on the corner opposite the assemblyman’s office on the other side of Fenton Avenue), you have people. This lady was coming down right where that police vehicle [is, across Fenton Avenue] when the bullets were firing and she ran, an elderly person to here.” the woman said. Asked if she could describe the lady, the woman said, “No, it was dark. She was just passing by. She was about 50, 60.”

Asked if there was anyone else around, the woman said there were also people coming in and out of the deli. “It was busier than now, people going up and down but I knew there was a lady crossing the street,” she said. Asked if the assemblyman’s office was open, she said, “It was open! Of course, it was working hours, but like I said, everybody waited before they come out, my store as well so I stayed inside. I looked across and there wasn’t anyone standing apart from the guys in the deli. You could see people in the deli, back and forth.”

The New York Daily News later reported that a female witness told them the victim had been speaking on his phone when he was shot and that the perpetrators sped off in a white car.

Meanwhile, the same business owner said said she was grateful to the Lord that she was ok. “That’s a crime spot, really,” she said. “It’s not the first. People get killed there all the time.”

Anyone with information regarding this missing person 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 CrimeStoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/ or on Twitter @NYPDTips.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.