NEW YORK — Police say one man was killed and three injured when gunmen on scooters opened fire in the Bronx on Tuesday.
It happened in the Mount Eden section around 6:15 p.m.
4 shots in the Bronx; 1 dead, 3 injured
Police say four men between the ages of 23 and 37 were standing at the corner of Townsend Avenue and East Mount Eden Avenue when four people on two scooters approached them, driving east on Mount Eden Avenue.
According to police, the two rear passengers pulled out firearms and fired about 10 bullets at the men standing on the corner.
Three victims were shot in the leg and one victim, a 29-year-old man, was shot in the chest and leg.
The 29-year-old victim was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police say the suspects fled on the scooters and headed north on Townsend toward the Cross Bronx Expressway. All four suspects wore masks and hoodies.
At this time, police have one man in custody, but they are unsure if this individual is directly linked to the shooting.
The investigation is ongoing. Police say the motive is unclear at this time.
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.
NYPD combats crimes involving scooters
Deputy Commissioner for Operations Kaz Daughtry said this month that police have been working with the Community Response Team in the Mount Eden section of the Bronx to aggressively pursue individuals on scooters.
“There is a direct relationship with people who ride around on illegal scooters and commit crimes, and it’s a careful balance for us because there are people who ride around legitimately on scooters, who work at Uber Eats and the like, so it’s a careful selection for us, but we see them both, and it’s hard to distinguish at first, but we do see them both,” said Assistant Chief Benjamin Gurley.
Daughtry says so far this year, police have made 1,300 arrests involving people on scooters and issued 989 citations to people on scooters.
According to the NYPD, 9,500 illegal scooters, dirt bikes and ATVs have been taken off city streets so far this year, including 2,500 in the Bronx alone.
“We have to give our officers a lot of credit. It takes skill to arrest these individuals on scooters. We don’t want our police chasing them through the streets because we don’t want to endanger the public, so we use other things like technology… We have our air support that will follow them, wait for them to get off their scooter and them will go in for the arrest,” Daughtry said. “It’s a skill to go after these scooters, but we don’t want the police aggressively chasing them, you know, Grand Concourse, because is it really worth it? So there’s a technique that we have that we use and which we”We’re getting really good at.”
Daughtry says the department will bring the Community Response Team back to the neighborhood after Tuesday’s shooting, specifically to go after illegal scooters, dirt bikes and ATVs.
“We cannot arrest our way out of this problem… In this game of public safety, there are other individuals involved in this game of public safety. We are just the first person in the game of public safety where the criminal enters. Contact .Can the Community Response Team, is that the answer to everything? Absolutely not, 100 percent no. There are other stakeholders in this game of public safety.
“I think if you hold the repeat offenders accountable, that’s where we get our money’s worth. We have examples of that and we’re working with our partners in the DA’s office to do that,” Gurley said.
Police said Tuesday that 36 gun arrests have been made in the past 28 days in the 44th and 46th NYPD precincts, which covers the southwest and western parts of the Bronx, and that 18 guns have been taken off the streets between April 1 and April 18 achieved in that area. 9 alone.
