A 25-year-old Hispanic scooter-riding gunman was arrested on Saturday after carrying out a 27-minute shooting spree in New York City that left three injured and one elderly man dead, according to authorities.
New York City Police Department Assistant Chief Joseph Kenny detailed during a news conference the random shootings carried out by the unidentified male that wreaked havoc on the streets of Queens and Brooklyn over the weekend.
“We don’t know the motive, “Kenny said. “It seems his acts were random. Video shows that he’s not targeting anybody — he’s not following anybody as he’s driving on his scooter. He’s randomly shooting people.”
The gunman began shooting at unsuspected pedestrians just after 11:00 a.m. on Saturday with a 9 mm ghost handgun while driving on an illegal scooter at Ashford Avenue and Arlington Avenue in Brooklyn.
According to police, the gunman drove behind a 21-year-old Hispanic male and shot him one time in the left shoulder at 11:10 a.m. He is expected to survive his injuries.
Less than 20 minutes later, the shooter arrived in Queens and fired a bullet into the back of an 87-year-old male in front of a nail salon on Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill.
Video surveillance shows the victim stumbling to the ground as blood is seen soaking the front and back of his button-down shirt.
***WARNING: video below contains graphic images.***
⚠️ viewer discretion is advised ⚠️
Here’s videos of a man who was going around doing drive-by shootings while he was on his scooter. 4 people were shot during his shooting spree .
The man was arrested by the NYPD #Crime #NYC #SaturdayVibes pic.twitter.com/1kTqTaURuS— Viral News NY (@ViralNewsNYC) July 9, 2023
Local media identified the man as Hamoud Ali Al-Saidi, who walked through the neighborhood for several miles daily to check on family and friends.
“He was walking all the time. He always used to tell me he was so proud to walk: ‘I’m doing three miles a day. I’m doing four miles a day,’ and so on and so forth,’” Avraham Gaon, 60, told New York Daily News. “He used to like it here because it was safe. As I say — was.’”
Authorities transported Al-Saidi to Jamaica Hospital, where a crowd of friends and relatives waited for updates about 87-year-old Al-Saidi.
“It sucks, it really sucks seeing everyone like this,” one man told The New York Post. “He wasn’t my grandpa, but he was that figure for most of us.”
Another mourner told The Post, “We used to go on walks here all the time, and for something like this to happen really sucks.”
Al-Saidi later died at the hospital, according to police.
About eight minutes after the gunman shot Al-Saidi, he fired at a 44-year-old Hispanic man, striking him in the cheek while he was on the corner of Hillside Ave. and 126th St. The victim was transported to a hospital and is in critical condition.
At 11:37 a.m., the gunman fired another bullet at a 63-year-old Hispanic male at Jamaica Avenue and 134th Street, wounding his right shoulder. Police said the victim remains in stable condition.
According to police, authorities arrested the suspected approximately two hours after the first incident occurred in Brooklyn.
“Armed with an image of the suspect as officers fanned out across Queens,” NYPD Acting Police Commissioner Edward Caban said during the news conference, calling for a critical message to help officers identify and arrest the suspect.
“The 9mm pistol had an extended magazine. Given the violence, this individual was willing to carry out, I want to extend my deepest thanks and gratitude to all the men and women in the NYPD who came together to apprehend him,” Caban said.
Authorities said the suspect had one prior arrest in New York City.
Witnesses told The Post they saw the shooter riding on a sidewalk randomly shooting at pedestrians, causing panic in the streets.
“We were inside, and we heard like three shots — pow, pow, pow — one behind each other,” one local store owner said. “I looked outside, but I didn’t see him. People said he was on a motorcycle on the sidewalk, just shooting randomly. People were screaming and running.”
Another source told the outlet she saw people “running all over the place” as she entered a nearby laundromat.
“People are scared. Everybody is scared,” she said. “This is a peaceful neighborhood. I don’t know what happened today.”
Read the full article here
Discussion about this post