A 32-year-old man died in a hail of bullets fired on a Brooklyn street Tuesday morning, some of which struck a school bus and a city bus near the scene, it was reported.
Police have not yet released the identity of the victim, who was hit multiple times in the stomach and chest and was left bleeding in the middle of the street at Pennsylvania and Dumont Avenues in East New York at about 8:45 a.m.
Paramedics rushed him to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Witnesses said the man lived in a building right next to where the shooting occurred. Five spent shells were found on the Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalk, police said.
Several shots struck the door of a mini-school bus sitting in front of a nearby day care center, PAL A&M Head Start, as well as a B20 MTA bus traveling northbound along Pennsylvania Avenue. Law enforcement sources said a 4-year-old child was on board the school bus at the time, but escaped injury. No one else on either bus was hurt.
Police shut down Pennsylvania Avenue for two blocks as crime scene investigators combed the area for clues.
No description was yet available of the suspect in the shooting, police say.
Residents of the East New York neighborhood were shocked by the brazen daylight shooting adjacent to Thomas Jefferson High School campus. Normally, there is a heavy police and school safety officer presence at the building and police were at the scene within a minute, but the suspect had already fled by the time cops arrived.
Richard Ball, a resident of Pennsylvania Avenue for 20 years, said he was shocked that someone would start shooting during the day.
“This never happens around here — not on this block,” Ball said. “There are a lot of police over here. Sometimes they get into hand fights, but never like this.”
James Paul, a resident of Dumont Avenue, said he wasn’t surprised by the violence, but was startled that it occurred during the day.
“Kids are going to school over here and they are shooting,” Paul said. “It happens every week, but always at night. People going to school, people on the buses, it could’ve been a lot worse. What I want to know is where is the 75th and 73rd Precincts … where were they?”
A teacher, who did not want to be identified, was heading into school with a student who looked shocked at the spent shells marked on the ground.
“It’s just ridiculous,” the teacher said, shaking his head while holding a young boy by the hand as he shuffled by. “I don’t know what is going on around here.”
The victim’s family members were also in the area. A relative who identified himself as the victim’s uncle said the victim “was a good kid, and he was not involved anything — he just started a job.”
Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). 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.
