Photo from March 16, 2024, by Stacie Joy
A man who terrorized parkgoers during two daylight shootings in Tompkins Square Park over five days in March 2024 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The sentence for Waldemar Alverio handed down yesterday in New York Supreme Criminal Court includes five years of post-release supervision, according to Manhattan D.A. Bragg's office. Alverio faced
multiple charges, including three counts of An Attempt to Commit the Crime of Murder in the Second Degree and two counts of Assault in the First Degree.
On March 16, 2024, at 12:45 p.m., two men allegedly chased, punched and kicked Alverio. As they ran off, Alverio unzipped his bag and pulled out a gun, firing at them five times, per court documents.
Alverio struck one of the two men in the buttocks, fracturing his pelvis and lodging a bullet in his hip. Alverio also shot a bystander, a 53-year-old tourist, fracturing her right hip, which had to be surgically replaced. The D.A.'s office last year said that she would need "months of physical therapy as she learns how to walk again."
Five days later,
on March 21, Alverio returned to Tompkins Square Park just after noon, approached a group in the park, and shot at them five times.
While Alverio did not strike anyone on that day, one bullet smashed through a window and into a bedroom in an apartment building across Seventh Street, and another bullet smashed through a window and lodged in a stairwell in a second building on Seventh Street.
Officers from the 7th Precinct recognized Alverio from a wanted flyer and arrested him on Delancey Street on March 26, 2024.
"Waldemar Alverio is facing accountability for a pair of shootings in Tompkins Square Park that injured two and threatened the safety of many other bystanders. Parks must be safe havens for Manhattanites to gather and spend time with their friends and family, and nobody should have to worry they will be struck by a bullet in the middle of the day," Bragg said in a statement. "Combatting gun violence remains my top priority, and we will continue to prosecute those who use illegal firearms, while also making investments in our communities to address the root causes of shootings."
The new asphalt only extends the length of the field house and the area near the ping-pong table...
As these photos from yesterday show, the pocked pavement along the Ninth Street walkway — on both sides of the field house — remains unchanged. It's treacherous terrain for anyone with mobility issues and a long-overdue improvement that would benefit all parkgoers.
Previously on EV Grieve:
