By The newspaper
05 Mar 2024, 12:34 PM EST
Kenneth Taveras was shot to death outside the building where he lived with his mother in Upper Manhattan, abruptly ending his dream of joining the military like his brother.
Taveras, 33, was shot several times in the chest around 10:35 p.m. Sunday in a parking lot at Polo Grounds Towers, a public housing complex (NYCHA) in Washington Heights, according to the NYPD.
Paramedics took him to Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, but could not save him. Between three and five men left in a black van and are being sought, police said.
The deceased “I was excited to join the army,” he told yesterday Daily News his mother, Juana Taveras, who was visiting relatives in Jersey City (NJ) when she received the unfortunate news. “When I came back, the area was cordoned off and the police were here… They had already taken him to the hospital. “I didn’t even get to see it until this morning.”
“His older brother was in the Navy and Marine Corps, but now he’s back. “He always admired his brother and was always interested in joining the services,” the mother added.
The victim had enlisted in the military and was scheduled to report for duty within three months. He used to work for NYCHA before accepting a job as a cleaner at a friend’s salon near his house, his mother said. He had a girlfriend in Florida who rushed to New York after receiving the news.
So far this year, as of Feb. 25, 44 people citywide have been victims of homicides, a 27% drop from the same period last year, when there were 60 cases, Department of Justice statistics show. New York Police. Shootings have decreased in 2024 with 109 incidents as of February 25 compared to 159 in the same period in 2023.
No arrests have been made or suspects identified in Tavares’ death. 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.
Last week, a 13-year-old boy returning home after watching a Brooklyn Nets basketball game was shot to death in Crown Heights (NYC). That same day, a young 60-year-old grandfather died in a morning shooting inside his apartment in Harlem, Manhattan (NYC).
These crimes were added to other fatal shootings on the streets of Brooklyn in a few days: on Wednesday, February 28, a 33-year-old man was fatally shot in the head when he was ambushed by two people outside his residential building in Crown Heights. On Monday the 26th, a 37-year-old man was shot in the head in broad daylight in an apparent argument over a cigarette that started in the warehouse where he worked and spread to the street, on Franklin Avenue.
In another similar case, also in February, a 19-year-old Hispanic teenager died in the hospital after spending several days in critical condition after being shot in the head outside a public housing complex (NYCHA) in Queens.