Triple shooting in Upper Manhattan leaves 2 men dead, NYPD says

Two men are dead and a third is recovering after they were shot in Upper Manhattan on Sunday night, according to police.

NYPD officials on Monday said officers responded around 11:45 p.m. to multiple 911 calls for a person shot at West 207th Street and 10th Avenue in Inwood. They arrived to find a 44-year-old man shot in the face, a 40-year-old man shot in the chest and a 37-year-old man shot in the leg, police said.

Emergency medical workers took the oldest man in critical condition to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 40-year-old man was taken in critical condition to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Inwood and was later pronounced dead.

Police said the youngest man, who was also taken to Harlem Hospital, is in stable condition. They did not release the deceased victims’ names, pending the notification of their families.

No suspects or arrests were announced as police continue to investigate the shooting.

The 37-year-old was discharged from the hospital and was back at home, not far from the crime scene. In an interview with Gothamist, he said he and some friends were celebrating Father’s Day at a restaurant on that block when he stepped outside to take a phone call.

“I went [outside] because the music was too loud from the place … and I feel hot,” he said, gesturing to his knee, which was covered with a small white bandage over a graze wound. “And that’s it.”

The man, who requested that his name be withheld because he is the victim of a crime under active investigation, said he has lived in the area for a long time and is now scared about potential violence. He said he did not see the other two men get shot nor the shooter.

Residents and business owners congregated on Monday morning near crime scene tape cordoning off much of 10th Avenue between West 207th and 206th streets. They watched as NYPD detectives investigated in front of Blue Sky smoke shop. A breathing apparatus used by EMS workers to stabilize victims was visible on the sidewalk, next to a spot of blood.

Surveillance video of the incident, which Gothamist obtained from a nearby store, showed a person in dark clothing firing four shots toward two men who were standing and talking outside the smoke shop. One of the men was able to dive away, while the other fell on his stomach and yelled to the people inside the shop to call an ambulance.

The wife of the 44-year-old victim confirmed he was shot and killed in the incident, though police have still not officially released his name. She didn’t want to give her name out of concerns for her safety in the middle of the police investigation, but said her husband appeared to be “at peace.”

She said she wasn’t sure what he was up to in Inwood — he lived in Mt. Eden in the Bronx.

“He was a stand-up man, and he was all about family, and he was one of a kind," she said. "I’m just, you know, trying to calm down."

Dana Williams, a 41-year-old construction worker in the area on Monday, said he was not entirely surprised to learn about the shooting.“Do I feel safe? Probably not, but we can’t be scared to come to work every day,” he said. “Fights, shootings, stabbings, it happens all the time over here. This time somebody actually got killed, though.”

Williams and local neighbors attributed some of the violence to nearby nightclubs and smoke shops, saying they sometimes attract illicit activity and conflict.

“There are a lot of schools here, and a lot of kids come through,” said Laura Javier, 38, in Spanish. “So I feel like it shouldn’t be an area like this.”

“I work over there at a barbershop, and I don’t leave there until I go home,” she added. “I don’t like to be outside because of that, because suddenly something happens and people start running.”

Javier said the neighborhood has gotten more dangerous over the 18 years she’s lived there, and cited illegal drug sales as a potential factor.

Another video viewed by Gothamist shows the second victim lying on his back in front of a restaurant next to the 207th Street subway station. In the video, EMS workers and a woman who appeared to be a bystander put pressure on wounds on his chest.

Ranulfo Hernandez, who manages the restaurant, said he wasn’t working when the shooting happened, but he praised his employees for their efforts to save the man, who knocked on the restaurant’s door after he got shot.

“They called the ambulance, and they grabbed something to stop the blood,” Hernandez said. “Everybody was crying, the guy went down in a couple of minutes. I feel a little scared, because the neighborhood is getting worse, you worry about everything.”

In a separate incident on Sunday just after 11 p.m. in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, police said 32-year-old Tyreek Ogarro was shot and killed on Ralph Avenue at the Breevort NYCHA complex. His home address was listed as just a few blocks from the scene of the shooting.

Officials said he was found with multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital. No suspects or arrests were immediately announced.

In the 34th Precinct, which includes Inwood and Washington Heights, there have been eight shooting incidents so far this year, compared to three at the same point last year, NYPD data shows. There were two fatal shootings there last year, according to NYPD data compiled by Gothamist.

In the 81st Precinct, which includes Bed-Stuy and Stuyvesant Heights, there have been six shooting incidents so far this year, compared to five at the same point last year, police figures show. There were six fatal shootings there last year, according to Gothamist’s analysis.

This story has been updated with additional information.