NEW YORK — The NYPD is investigating whether at least three pellet gun shootings are connected.
They took place in Manhattan and the Bronx on Sunday evening and Monday.
Lower East Side resident Allen Stern said he was walking out of a synagogue with friends around 7:30 a.m. Monday when he was struck.
“That’s where it hit me, right there,” Stern said of the mark on his wrist. “Who goes out in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to randomly shoot people with a pellet gun?’ It’s crazy.”
The 62-year-old added: “[I’m] as I walk along, I see this gentleman on the bike. He pulls up a big orange super soaker looking thing and next thing you know I get hit in the wrist.”
Surveillance video shows three people on bicycles riding along Clinton Street, with one holding up an orange handgun and pointing it at the group along the sidewalk before riding away.
“If it would have hit me, I would be in the hospital,” Stern said.
“They just seemed to be taking it out of control.”
About 45 minutes after Stern was hit, a similar incident happened on Fifth Avenue near 35th Street, according to police.
Investigators say a 47-year-old man was hit in the back with a GelBlaster pellet. Police say a physical altercation ensued when he tried to confront the three men on bicycles and the group fled.
On Sunday evening, an MTA worker in the Bronx said police fired shots at his vehicle on Valentine Avenue, shattering the driver’s side window. He told officers he felt back and elbow pain, stopped and realized bullets from a BB gun had landed in his vehicle.
While the NYPD investigates whether the incidents are related, Stern said he hopes those responsible get help.
“You want them to get fair justice, but I just hope they turn their lives around because it seemed like they were just going out of their way,” Stern said.
Fortunately, no one was seriously injured.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477)or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All conversations are treated confidentially.
Jenna DeAngelis
