Photos and reporting by Stacie Joy
Two men were shot this morning around 9:45 at the chess tables near the entrance to Tompkins Square Park at Seventh Street and Avenue A, the NYPD has confirmed.
The condition of the two victims is not known at the moment. Updated 1:14 p.m. Police confirmed that one of the victims, a man in his 70s, has died. (EMTs took both shooting victims to Bellevue.)
Police sources tell us that the shooting was drug-related and that it involved "problematic people at the Park."
The suspect, wearing a hoodie and mask, was seen fleeing down Seventh Street toward Avenue B. There are early reports of a white vehicle involved in a getaway.
Police are canvassing the area and scrutinizing surveillance footage.
An EVG reader shared this with us:
Updated: Police said the suspect was seen in and around the Park about 50 minutes prior to the shooting wearing gloves, a mask, and a hoodie.
Around 9:45 a.m. I heard around 5-8 shots ring out (LOUD shots), followed by everyone fleeing the Park. I was in the dog run with a whole bunch of fellow owners, trying to get our very scared pups out of there in a hurry. I'm a 15-year resident [and this was the] first time I've been forced to flee like that.
This past March, there were two daytime shootings (by the same suspect who was later arrested) in the Park. In the first shooting on March 16, a bullet struck an innocent bystander, a 53-year-old tourist, in her right hip, which had to be surgically replaced.
The chess tables have long been a problem, an area where there have been multiple reports of drug use and sales, fencing stolen property, and various fist/knife fights.
The NYPD and Parks Enforcement Patrol barricaded the area for most of the summer of 2022. In October 2022, a delivery man was slashed in the face here in the afternoon.
As we wrote in August 2022: "Eventually, the barricades are removed ... and nothing ever really changes."
Anyone with information that could help in the investigation is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477). You may also submit tips online. All calls are strictly confidential.
Previously on EV Grieve:
City clears and closes the area around the chess tables in Tompkins Square Park (Sept. 1, 2021)
54 comments:
Folks, don't worry. According to the NYPD and the NYT, crime is down year-to-year 6.5% or some other meaningless percentage. Don't believe what you see in real, waking life. Just trust the data as these types of incidents keep occurring in areas that five years ago were some of the safest urban locales in the world.
ABC is now reporting that one of the men is dead. Horrible.
I’ve lived in this neighborhood for 65 years and while statistically it safer than the 80’s and early 90’s. I don’t think I spent as much time looking over my shoulder then as I do now. Very sad. ��
It’s time to bring back stop and frisk searches.
I have lived in the EV for the better part of 40 years. The chess tables in the park have been a problem for quite a while. Please get rid of them now. They are a magnet for poor behavior. I don't even go to the park anymore. Its tragic that the neighborhood continues to decline while politicians and law enforcement do little to change the conditions.
Chess tables don’t kill people, people kill people.
I live on the corner of 7th and A. I heard the gunshots and immediately looked out my window. I saw the 44yr old victim running across A with blood all over his shirt. Immediately called 911. A sad day in the EV. I hope they find the shooter
Jesus Christ. This is awful. Sympathies to the victims and their families and friends.
If you don’t mind being stopped and frisked randomly, then sure let’s bring it back.
Hopefully the new loading zone will be pressed into service sooner than later.
People who call for the return of stop-and-frisk (which was found to be unconstitutional, so you can't just "bring it back," anyway) don't think *they'll* be stopped and frisked. After all, they're not "suspicious-looking."
Just remove that section of the park, all the chess tables etc. and never reopen the restrooms
Between this and the hot stretch of 14th between 1st and A the neighborhood is being squeezed - idk why the f we pay so much cop overtime etc it nothing ever changes
Outrageous and sadly unsurprising given the state of the park these days.
JFC. What's it going to take to get some serious change in Tompkins? A kid getting caught in the crossfire? Two kids? Twenty? Fifty?
Demand change. Out with Rivera, out with Adams.
Is it that hard to have a regular foot patrol in the park?
There is no doubt that we need more law enforcement in the park as has been the case since at least as the pandemic petered out.
But workers from the NYPD determining that a certain someone or a certain group of someones or a place are "problematic" are speaking above their pay grade.
One is reminded of the 2003 blackout during the Bloomberg regime when he dispatched an occupying force to take over the park when ours was one of last neighborhoods to regain power and so a few trash cans were set afire. Mayor Mike the Billionaire was quoted at the time as saying "problem areas will be dealt with."
In this certain and specific sense we don't pay NYPD to think or pass judgment while asking them to do their job by doing their best to keep us safe.
We deserve both at the same time.
There is no "fixing" any of this. Guns are readily available (coming from other states with loose gun laws) poverty, and drug dealing have been around for ages. Maybe legalize heroin the way alcohol and weed is. Underground materials is how criminals prosper and people die.
My 6 year old daughter can spot a drug dealer at the park. I’ve trained her so she can stay away. If you frisk these people you’ll find enough drugs to lock them up for a couple of years (at least) for possession with intent to distribute. Yes, frisk them if needed. A week of such enforcement and the park would clean up. I don’t understand why this is so controversial. The alternative is what we have now - drug dealing and use in broad daylight, everyone feeling unsafe (I don’t dare let my kids run farther than 10 feet from me) and when the drugs deals go bad, you get stabbings, shootings and murder. How can anyone be ok with that??
I'd happily be stopped and frisked in return for fewer erratic, dangerous drug addicts and zero shootings on the block I live
This is wrong headed and unrealistic: "A week of such enforcement and the park would clean up."
How likely that is to happen to any given person depends on a few variables....
The NYPD has a budget of 11 Billion dollars and they can’t get a handle on one freaking park? Just post up two officers in that problem corner at all times.
Asleep at the wheel and always reactionary.
Patrols are useless if the police is not allowed to frisk, arrest, indict and imprison for significant time the (obvious) drug dealers and disruptive drug users. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen police and parks enforcement walk by these people doing nothing. It’s pointless until we give cops the ability to take action.
Guns don't kill people
Port o potties don't kill people either
Chess tables and public seating don't kill people
The Hedge Fund Blackstone who manufactures the guns for people to use to kill people
People kill people
And a certain type of person feels comfortable profiting off the sale of that gun
Do you know what percentage of guns manufactured in America are exported and how many guns are manufactured each year
Look this up
You will be shocked how.many guns are produced each year and what percentage are sold here
And for extra credit what do you think the average number of guns owned by a person who owns guns is
No one is actually playing chess on those tables it’s long been time to get ride of them
@ 3:47pm - Let's talk hard truths. It may time for the groups most concerned about stop-and-frisk to start focusing less on optics politics and more on their communities to excise the bad actors who give them all a bad name. And if they're not willing to take such accountability, it's hard to empathize why the rest of us should have to worry about ourselves and our families at being at risk just so you can avoid a small, crime-preventing contributing to civilized society.
I'm talking about the non-violent drug dealers, obviously. And if you thought otherwise, well, you may be the problem.
Shut off the park and build condominiums on its ground. Even better, clear the city of all humans.
EVG, what are we seeing in the cellphone picture?
If not totally fixed it’ll be a huge improvement. Drug dealers / users are not afraid to be seen as such today. It’s the law abiding citizens that are afraid. That’s upside down and just incomprehensible.
If it had been Sunday morning, the farmer's market would have been bustling with people.
Get rid of the chess tables. NOW.
Bold claims to be blaming financiers of gun manufacturers given there was a triple stabbing 3 blocks away and a slashing at Astor within the month. The problem is with the ignorance and lack of action of our local representatives to create policies that make the average citizen safer
"Patrols are useless if the police is not allowed to frisk, arrest, indict and imprison for significant time the (obvious) drug dealers and disruptive drug users. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen police and parks enforcement walk by these people doing nothing. It’s pointless until we give cops the ability to take action."
(a) The cops don't indict or imprison criminals. God forbid they should. Suggest you revisit your civics classes to understand how it works and why that is.
(b) The cops have the power to do plenty. They just can't arrest randos on the grounds that they look sketchy to them. (The shitty historical record on that is ABUNDANTLY clear and indisputable.) Instead, they have to do some actual work (e.g., surveillance or buy-and-busts) to get probable cause for an arrest. Despite being some of our best-paid employees, far too many of them just aren't interested in putting in the effort required to build real cases.
P.S. I'm a middle-aged non-poor-looking white woman, so I would only get frisked if I was at a protest. I just prefer living in a free society.
I see a lot of people beating up on the NYPD. Heres's the thing; When the type of guy that deals drugs, robs an old lady, or shoots someone in the head gets arrested, they don't just throw their arms up in the air and say 'Okay guys, ya got me,' and stroll off to jail. They kick, scream, bite, and do everything within their power to NOT get caught. Cops often have to get physical. They are also human. Humans can be funny. They tend to get testy when you kick them in the groin or bite them in the neck. And when they do, you can be sure that some 20 year old with a cell will be right there to film the whole thing and post it on IG along with a half sided story. You can also be sure that a group of folks will be standing by yelling, screaming, and swearing at the officers. Until that mentality changes everything will remain the same. As for Stop and Frisk. I lived through the 70's, 80's, and half the 90's with a soft touch approach. I lived through Bloomy years with SAF. I'll take the latter any time. Contrary to what people like to say, police to not RACIALLY profile. They PROFILE based on Compstat information. Criminal Justice and Deviant Behavior is a science. Cops don't guess. Police know exactly where the crimes are being committed and exactly who is committing those crimes. They do not PRE-Judge. They judge based on facts. There will always be exceptions, there will always be bad apples, and there will always be mis-steps. And yes, sometimes rights might be violated and people might get offended. But guess what, the same goes for the alternative. Your rights are violated when you can't take you're kid to the park, when you're store gets robbed, and yes, when you're stabbed to death on 14th or shot to death in TSP.
It’s very hard to change a neighborhood once crime becomes a problem, unfortunately.
If you zoom in, looks like a person who has been shot lying on the ground, being tended by three cops
@4:43pm: posting cops does little unless they can make arrests. Washington park has police presence in the “troubled” west corners almost constantly but the drug dealing and consumption continues. Police needs to be able to search people on simple suspicion of drug activity, and as soon as they find drugs or other evidence arrest and imprison. Until that happens, I see few solutions and more chaos coming.
I understand what you’re saying, but first steps could be putting some beat cops in the park. That would at least deter a shooting perhaps? What I’m saying is for 11 billion dollars anything is better than nothing.
Get rid of the people who hang around the chess tables, NOW!
Tables didn’t shoot anyone. More chess and less shooting would be a good start.
@sarah: I’m on my phone and can’t write dissertations. Of course the DA indicts and the courts judge. I just meant that all these parties need to do their job so that criminals face some basic accountability and so that the cops have an incentive to do arrests.
I never said arrest just based on appearances. But cops should be able to search someone who seems like he’s doing drug deals and **IF** they find significant amounts of drugs arrest immediately. And hopefully the DA will prosecute so that they see significant jail time.
Common sense stuff IMO
nobody is talking about the problem. Moving people from one area to another does not solve problems. Not allowing illegal guns, which start with the manufacturers, would stop people from getting shot. Have people with mental health and substance abuse problems being helped in supportive housing would get then off the street with treatment. As long as you have poverty, you will have survival problems
The East Village is DSA. The only part of it that isn’t DSA is even further left into the crazy universe that they don’t have a name for it yet. DSA likes a few shootings in Tompkins Square Park. It keeps the developers at bay & the gentrifiers questioning their choices
This is a terribly sad story. I used to live on e7th between A and B from about 2009 to 2013 and I am back in the neighborhood for the summer and this story breaks my heart as I have been enjoying being back in Tompkins square everyday. The only thing I can say is... I don't know but back when I lived here police presence was much stronger. There was always a patrol car nearby around the park. I don't feel this way as much about NYC anymore, as much as too much police presence can be a bad thing, it does deter crazy things like this. There were more cops around back in those days and I never had a problem in this park over all those years.
Bring back "Broken Windows" and do away with Bail Reform.
You may find this offensive but it will work to fight crime.
"Cops don't guess. Police know exactly where the crimes are being committed and exactly who is committing those crimes. They do not PRE-Judge. They judge based on facts."
And yet, somehow, they have no idea who this guy is. As for the idea that cops judge only based on facts--sounds like you're old enough that it's downright embarrassing to make an objectively absurd claim like that one.
"so that the cops have an incentive to do arrests."
They have an incentive. Multiple incentives, in fact: their generous paychecks (find another job that pays well for undereducated guys with no demonstrated skills at the time of hiring), benefits, union protections, and pensions. Who else gets those? Do *you* just get to decide not to do your job because you don't find all the outcomes satisfying? If so, please let me know what you do, because I sure don't, and neither do most people.
Hi Sarah, just curious if you would consider "loosing your life for a society that hates you for doing your job" an incentive? I would love to see people with this attitude to try being a police officer and see how quickly their attitude changes
Things seemed fairly civil during the blackout of 2003. Maybe because 9/11 was still within recent memory.
If the same thing were to happen tomorrow it would likely result in absolute mayhem.
I was also around for the blackout of 1977, which was hair-raising. Can't vouch for the other one during the 1950s because that was before my time.
"P.S. I'm a middle-aged non-poor-looking white woman, so I would only get frisked if I was at a protest. I just prefer living in a free society"
Bully for you!
Reply
@Sarah "And yet, somehow, they have no idea who this guy is."
No. I'm sure they do. They just haven't caught him yet. They always do.
"sounds like you're old enough that it's downright embarrassing to make an objectively absurd claim like that one."
No. Sounds like you're young enough to A) Have very little perspective and B) Hurl ageist insults when you lack facts and knowledge to back up your position.
"(find another job that pays well for undereducated guys with no demonstrated skills at the time of hiring"
Journalist. NY1 Anchor. City Councilperson. FYI NYPD detectives must have college degrees. Officers must have 2 years college.
not the 1950s that blackout was 1964 or 65 or 66 I remember because I was in high school.
Guilliani reduced the crime. Yet y'all hate him.
DeBlasio and Adams let criminals out (no bail required) and don't prosecute the criminals. The police say "why bother" and protect themselves instead. Meanwhile foreign criminals have come to the city, let in by the Biden Administration, with an uptick in drug traffic.
This is the result.
But you don't see the source of the problems or the solutions. You mock the one guy who actually made the city safer. Enjoy Gotham City.
@BT Wrong. Adam's had zero to do with bail reform or voting in our D.A. Alvin Bragg. . The city council has stood in the way of every move Adam's, a former officer, has made to curb crime. Facts please.
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