By Marlyn Montilla
07 Oct 2024, 17:44 PM EDT
New York authorities reported that a 35-year-old man was fatally shot in a Queens apartment building early Sunday morning.
The victim was shot several times in the head and torso in a building located on 125th Street near 103rd Avenue in South Richmond Hill around 3:00 a.m., police said.
“I heard people breaking in at the lobby door about two or three times, like before 3 a.m.,” said Alexander Wilson, 51, who lives on the first floor of the four-story building. “I was in my room. There was a lot of noise. “I heard like an explosion.”
“They brought the person downstairs and I never saw him or recognized him living in this building,” he said of the victim. “It’s kind of creepy and scary that it happened.”
Paramedics transported the victim to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. So far his name has not been released. No arrests have been made in this regard either.
“Every night it’s noisy, people are breaking in,” Wilson said. “I tried to tell the owner, but nothing changed.”
The building’s owner, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he believes the victim was visiting a problematic tenant in second-floor supportive housing that takes in guests who tend to be disruptive, Daily News reported.
“He’s been causing a lot of disturbance,” the landlord said of the tenant. “He’s supposed to live alone in the apartment, not smoke or drink, but he doesn’t care about the rules and brings people in from the street.”
“Everyone has a key for the front door, but he would ring the door and force the lock to open it,” he added. “Once he managed to open the door, he would bring in these people from the street.”
This shooting marks the third murder of 2024 in Queens’ 102nd Precinct, which saw seven homicides in all of 2023, according to New York Police Department (NYPD) statistics.
“I woke up in the middle of the night and heard people talking loudly upstairs,” said Ibrahim Azeem, 42, who lives on the first floor. “I just heard a commotion.”
“Everything is pretty quiet here,” he added. “I’m surprised it happened in the building.”
However, Hafeez Rhman, 70, who lives on the same block, said that where the shooting took place is a source of problems.
“It’s a wonderful area, just because of that building,” he said. “There is always a commotion, the police go through that building once a week. “That building is well-known on this block, but other than that it is a good area.”
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