Three people are dead in separate shootings city-wide on Wednesday in continuing gun-related violence, police officials say.
All of the shootings on July 22 resulted in deaths, with several other shootings around the city having no casualties, but did attract police investigations.
The shootings come as the NYPD is stepping up patrols, increasing high visibility units in violence-prone areas, and conducting outreach to communities through the Community Affairs office to reach neighborhoods and promote a peaceful resolution of disputes.
Much of the violence in the past few weeks was related to gang warfare, specifically the murder of rapper Pop Smoke in California in February. In addition, there were five arrests of individuals with gang connections three weeks ago. The arrests seemed to trigger a shooting spree throughout the city involving gangs.
Also, investigators say there has been a proliferation of handguns throughout the city, with the Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz holdings a press conference yesterday revealing the arrest of three people who were trafficking guns from Virginia in Jamaica Queens.
Commissioner Dermot Shea has also blamed non-functioning courts including a failure to operate grand juries to indict those arrested carrying guns. He has also blamed the release of Rikers Island prisoners and criminal justice reforms that have resulted in the release of many of those arrested for lesser crimes.
Here is a run-down of shootings that occurred on July 22:
July 22, 5:55 p.m. – Police from the 77th Precinct received a 911 call of a person shot at 1919 Pacific Street in the Kingsborough Houses, a NYCHA development. Cops found 22-year-old Armani Hamilton, of Kingsborough 3 Walk, shot twice in the chest. He was rushed to Kings County Hospital, but could not be saved.
There are no arrests in this case as police study NYCHA camera video in search of suspects.
July 22, 11:25 a.m. – Police from the 120th Precinct in Staten Island received a 911 call of a man shot at Barker Street and Castleton Avenue where they found a 35-year-old man who was shot in the chest. He was rushed to Richmond University Medical Center, but could not be saved.
The victim has not yet been identified by police and the investigation is continuing.
There were also reports of shots fired in Brooklyn and Manhattan, but no reports of injuries in these cases.
Police announce arrests
Police announced arrests in two Bronx homicides that have occurred in the past few weeks.
The first arrests have occurred this week in a homicide in which a man was found wrapped in plastic on the roof of a McDonald’s Restaurant on July 15.
Police from the 40th Precinct found Richard Hamlet, 65, of East 149th Street, wrapped in a plastic bag on the roof of the McDonald’s at 279 East 149th Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators arrested two men allegedly connected to the murder. They have been identified as Ayame Stamoulis, 18 of Linden Blvd in Brooklyn and Jonathan Rodriguez, 21, of Hunter Avenue in the Bronx. Both were being charged with murder and criminally negligent homicide.
It is still unclear as to how they moved the body to the roof of the restaurant.
Police also announced the arrest of three men in regards to the May 2 shooting death of Franciso Rosado, 51, of Mace Avenue in the Bronx. He was found shot in the chest in front of 2522 Holland Avenue by police from the 49th Precinct.
Frank Tatulli, 58, of Hollywood Avenue, Bronx; Sayanon Thongthawath, 29, of 53rd Street in Queens; and Anthony Destefano, 27, of Vincent Avenue in the Bronx have been arrested and the motive for the crime was not immediately revealed.
Anyone with information in regards to any of the above shootings is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.
