Photo by Síle Moloney
Editor’s Note: Norwood News is officially on our annual summer hiatus. However, we are continuing to publish some ad hoc stories online that we couldn’t get to earlier this year. We hope you all get to enjoy the last few weeks of summer and thanks, as always, for reading.
Police said four young teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 15 were shot close to a school in the Westchester Square section of The Bronx on Friday afternoon.
An NYPD spokesperson said police received a 911 call at 4.04 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 22, for a report of multiple people shot in front of 1401 Overing Street, which is located between Tratman Avenue and Westchester Avenue.
Upon arrival, officers located a 13-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the left leg, a 14-year-old girl with a gunshot wound to her left leg, a 14-year-old boy with a graze wound to the foot and a 15-year-old boy with graze wounds to both legs.
They said all victims were transported by EMS in stable condition to NYC Health and Hospitals/Jacobi.
Police later confirmed there was a dispute prior to the shooting. Asked if the incident was gang related, they said they couldn’t say and added that there are no arrests at this time, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Photo by Síle Moloney
We spoke to Mahmud who was working at Bangla Grocery corner store located at St Peters Avenue & Tratman Avenue. He said at the time the incident unfolded, he heard gunfire. “I heard four rounds of this sound coming,” he said, adding that when he went outside, he saw “children,” “babies” When we asked if he meant toddlers, he clarified he meant children (young teens).
“A lot of blood!” he said. “A lot of children… This one [child] there’s a lot of blood outside. I see this.” He added, “At this time, not a lot of people [at] this time here.. outside.”
He said the police and ambulance came quickly in around two to three minutes. Asked if he was surprised by the shooting, he said, “I don’t know.” Asked if it was a common occurrence to have shootings in that particular area or if it was the first time, he said, “First time,” adding that he also lived close by to the store. Asked if he felt nervous for his safety after the shooting, he laughed softly and said, “No, no, not nervous.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
We also spoke to local resident Efrain Gonzalez, who said, “I saw the ambulances as I was waiting for the bus to come home. I saw two ambulances, one with a police cruiser in front, and the second one, the police cruiser trailing. I knew there was something serious… and then I started to see helicopters roaming around.”
He added, “I was very concerned because the gun violence in the community…. what’s shocking is that these are minors. This is not something that we’re going to be able to just say, ‘OK, we’re gonna clean this up.’ No, it’s going to take a lot of hands to clean that up, parents, people in the community. We got to look at the landlords now. Who’s harboring these children that have guns.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
Asked if it was unusual to have a shooting in that particular area, Gonzalez, a veteran, said, “Well, they said that there was two shootings last week and right around the corner is where the police officer got beaten about a month ago or so at four o’clock in the morning at his shift on St Peter’s [Avenue] near the [St. Peter’s] church [on Westchester Avenue].” Norwood News asked the NYPD for more information on these alleged incidents and will share any further updates we receive.
Gonzalez continued, “There is violence in this neighborhood. It has upticked probably in the last 10 years. I’ve been in the community since 2006. We have to be very careful… these dog days of summer…you can’t have kids shooting. We don’t want anybody having a gun, you know, unless it’s in their home or for personal protection but you can’t have kids….they have no idea how to shoot them. You might fire it but you don’t know the safety behind that. You have to be very careful.”
On passing a residential home on nearby Overling Street, the following security message was heard, “Hi, you are being recorded.” We later spoke to a young man and woman (possibly also teenagers) who declined to be recorded who were standing on Westchester Avenue and Overling Street next to some garbage bags on which some blood-soaked paper towels had been placed.
Photo by Síle Moloney
They said the shooting took place close to a park and school gesturing towards the school located on the corner of Overling Street and Tratman Avenue and adding that there was sometimes trouble between local kids in a nearby park. They pointed to a short trail of blood droplets near the garbage on Overling Street which, like Tratman Avenue, had been cordoned off by police earlier.
The two youths said there was an invisible dividing line that separated a better part of the neighborhood from a more dangerous part, saying east of Lane Avenue and Westchester Avenue (over which the subway runs) was a nice area but west of this was not, including the area where the shooting took place.
What looked like possible drops of blood were also seen on steps at the entrance to a building on Tratman though it’s not clear if it was blood or maybe paint that had been wiped away. We spoke to one tenant at the location who said he was unaware of what had happened. At the entrance to the same building on the wall were the words “SIC SIC.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
According to the Urban Dictionary and other internet sources, “Sic” has three main meanings, one of which is an informal verb meaning to direct an attack, typically a dog, at someone. It is also used as a friendly term by fans of the group Slipknot (Maggots) to say “stay cool” or “stay the same”. It originated from the song by Slipknot called “(sic)”.
As reported, a few weeks earlier, on Aug. 5, 14-year-old Ángel Miguel Mendoza Hernández was fatally stabbed as part of an apparent gang assault in the Williamsbridge Oval park in the Norwood section of The Bronx, leaving behind a devastated family. Since then, there has been a flurry of letters and events calling for more security in the Norwood park, including questions over a lack of security cameras, which presumably has not only hampered the investigation but has also been a cause of concern for park users from a safety perspective.
Photo by Síle Moloney
Local youth also weighed in on the topic. A week after the stabbing, one group of bikers seemingly tried to intimidate another group of youngsters attending a healing circle held in the park in the wake of the stabbing. More to follow.
Meanwhile, police said on Aug. 20, “There are individuals who are calling and impersonating the NYPD Crimestoppers 1-800-577-8477 number. NYPD Crimestoppers will NEVER contact you or ask for your personal information. If you receive a call from that number, ignore it.”
Photo by Síle Moloney
All calls are strictly confidential.
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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.