By The newspaper
30 Sep 2023, 00:52 AM EDT
A man, a woman and a dog were shot to death in Upper Manhattan (NYC), outside Highbridge Park, during the inclement rain on Friday.
The shooting occurred around 6:30 p.m. at W. 165th St. and Edgecombe Ave. in Washington Heights, the NYPD said. Both the man and the woman were shot in the head, he explained. DailyNews.
The couple was rushed to Harlem Hospital, but they could not be saved. Relatives identified the murdered woman as Jackie Billini, 57, who lived near the scene and worked as an analyst for the state judicial system in the Bronx. The man’s name was not immediately revealed, nor was the possible link between the two.
After the shooting, the dead dog lay on the sidewalk surrounded by evidence markers encompassing at least eight bullet casings. The gunman fled on foot.
A woman walking her dog in Highbridge Park said she arrived at the scene of the shooting. “They were a man and a woman, and they were shot in the head. And she shot and killed the dog. It was brutal. That was a message,” she commented.
“Did he also have to shoot the dog?” lamented a police officer at the scene. “Curse. “It was a beautiful animal.”
Bellini was attacked in April by a man who tried to break into her apartment with a hammer, her relatives told the Daily News. The attack was captured on video. “He broke her arm by kicking the door,” her daughter Iliana said. She added that this man also attacked another of Billini’s daughters and her boyfriend with the hammer.
Relatives said authorities know the attacker. “He should have locked him up, but they let him go,” said Luis Billini, 44, the victim’s nephew. It is not clear if there is a relationship between the two acts of violence.
The motive for the attack is unclear. No arrests have been made or suspects identified. Anyone with information should call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through the website crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text message to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
Gun violence does not stop in New York. On Sunday, José Andrés Rodríguez Gómez, a 47-year-old man of Dominican origin, was found shot to death in his truck parked near his home in The Bronx (NYC).
Also in the middle of this month, young grandmother Enriqueta Rivera Meléndez was shot to death apparently at random in the middle of a gang war in broad daylight in Mott Haven. A 21-year-old man was arrested as a suspect.