A police spokesperson said the incident occurred at around 6.16 p.m. at the corner of East 209th Street and Hull Avenue. The spokesperson said, “We have an individual [who] was shot one time in the right buttocks while sitting in a car.”

He said the victim transported himself to Montefiore Medical Center in Norwood, and is in a stable condition. We asked if the person was sitting with the car door closed or open when the shooting occurred. “I don’t know if the door was open or closed,” the spokesperson said. “We just have him sitting in a vehicle.”

 

Police said the victim was a 25-year-old male and added that no description for the shooter was available. Helicopters were heard hovering above the local area around the time the incident occurred, though it is unknown if they were police helicopters searching for the suspect or not. [Two hospitals are located close by and the sound of sirens and helicopters from emergency vehicles is common in the area.]

The apparent car in which the victim was shot was later seen outside the 210th entrance to Montefiore Medical Center in Norwood and was barricaded off and kept under guarded watch by police.

 

According to audio from police radio transmission, the suspect had entered French Charley Park in Norwood and an unmarked police vehicle was later seen entering the park area on Saturday evening.

We later spoke to one resident of Hull Avenue about the shooting who lived above the location where it took place and who declined to be identified. He said, “I was upstairs and I heard an argument – two guys arguing.” We asked in what language and he said, “English.”

He added, “I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Shots went off and that was it. Everyone was scattering.” He said he heard “a few” gunshots. He continued, “I looked out the window and everybody was just scattering. Nobody sticks around. They [the gunshots] were loud.”

 

He said he didn’t see anyone injured or shot and said the shooting took place on the right-hand side of Hull Avenue as you’re facing the street from the East Gun Hill Road side. “We’re on this side [of Hull] so I couldn’t see straight down,” he said, adding that he found out afterwards that the shots reportedly came from the other side of Hull.

The victim reportedly either drove himself or was driven to the hospital, located about 6 blocks away, in the vehicle in which he was shot in. There were no immediate signs of any blood on the street as police carryied out their investigation at the site of the shooting. Hull Avenue was blocked off with police cars at East Gun Hill Road, and the area closest to East 209th Street and Hull Avenue was cordoned off until around 8 p.m.

We asked the resident if there had been kids on the street at the time of the shooting. “There were kids when I looked out the window, from the shooter’s side (across the street) but I’m guessing it was the mother or whoever rushed them into the building,” he said. “That’s what I noticed, the kids, and it was upsetting to me.” The resident said he didn’t actually know anyone had been hit until later when he heard about it on social media.

Asked if he felt unsafe in the neighborhood, he said, “Yeah, you know. If you can’t stand it, you get used to it but it’s getting worse. It’s about time to think about leaving, sadly.”

 

Another younger resident called Justin who also lives on the block where the shooting occurred said he didn’t see what happened. “I was at the [Oval] Park,” he said, and added that he heard a gunshot. “It was like a loud boom,” he said. “I was thinking it was like a loud firework or something.” Asked how he felt about someone being shot on his block, he said, “Pretty dangerous… Sometimes I get kind of scared to go outside.”

We also spoke to an older man estimated to be in his ’70s who lived in the building opposite where the shooting took place who declined to be identified, and who said he had taken some medication earlier and had not heard the shooting as he had been sleeping. He said his daughter had heard the shots through the window however.

 

He added that his building had been blocked off in the aftermath of the incident and he was only able to head out to the store later in the evening. Asked how he felt about the incident, he said, “It’s just a terrible thing… I mean all the shooting now… there are too many guns out here. Me, I don’t like guns.”

He continued, “It’s not safe at all. I’m afraid to walk the street. Everybody got to be afraid to walk the street. I come out of the building and try not to have it on my mind. I look around – boom.. like it happened during the summer. I was at my appointment at Montefiore and I come back and all this shooting, and I couldn’t get in the block. I had to wait, wait, wait and then finally, I had to walk all the way around and come back through Perry [Avenue],” he said.

 

Norwood News reported previously on a prior shooting in September 2022 in the vicinity of Hull Avenue though we’re not sure if it’s the shooting to which the man was referring.

Another younger male resident who also declined to be identified, said of the incident, “I mean it’s pretty dangerous you know? Anybody could have gotten hit the way it happened.” He did not see the incident but said he heard from others that there were two cars and somebody was shooting from inside one of the cars at the other car. Asked if there were kids in the area at the time, he said from what he heard, there had not been but added that in the aftermath, there were a lot of people outside on the street.

 

We also spoke to an employee of Koftown African Market LLC, located close to the site of the shooting on Hull Avenue to see if anyone had seen the incident. The employee said he did not as he had not been inside the store when it occurred. He said police had asked if they could see his CCTV footage and added that he complied, but said it didn’t capture the incident as it was too far up the street.

According to the NYPD, for the month of March 2023, New York City saw a 26.1 percent drop in shooting incidents compared to March 2022 (85 v. 115), extending the 23.2 percent drop in shooting incidents citywide through the first quarter of 2023, compared to the same period last year (222 v. 289).

 

Police said, additionally, homicides fell by 11.4 percent (31 v. 35) for the month of March, extending the 12.7 percent decrease in homicides over the first three months of 2023 (89 v. 102). Reacting to the latest statistics for March, Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said, “The continuing drop in shootings, homicides, and other violence in New York City is a direct result of the hard work performed each day and night by the women and men of the NYPD.”

 

She added, “While we are encouraged that five of the seven index crime categories decreased in the first quarter, felony assaults and grand larceny autos remain persistent issues.  The NYPD will continue to address these conditions while also remaining focused on further driving down violence. As we go about this vital work, the NYPD will do so in close collaboration with all of our law enforcement partners and, most importantly, the people we serve.”