MOTT HAVEN, The Bronx (WABC) — Police are investigating after two innocent bystanders were shot in the Bronx, leaving a 71-year-old woman dead and another injured.
Gunfire erupted after 12:30 p.m. Thursday at the corner of E. 139th Street and Brook Avenue in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx, striking the victims.
Police marveled at the brazenness – the outright disregard for humanity at the center of a beef between members of rival gangs in broad daylight.
“Two males got into a dispute. One of the males pulled out a firearm and fired multiple shots at the other,” Asst. Chief Benjamin Gurley of the NYPD Patrol Bureau Bronx said. “Those bullets struck two innocent people standing out on the street.”
One of them was a 71-year-old Enriqueta Rivera, who was waiting to cross the street with her back turned to the gunfire. She fell with a bullet in her back.
A nurse ran for cover at first, but then tried to render aid.
“I heard three shots and I ran. When I ran, everybody else ran. When I came she was on the floor I gave CPR,” one witness said.
But she died at the hospital.
Another bullet hit a 34-year-old woman in the left arm. She had been standing with her friend when the shooting started. She was taken to the same hospital, where she is in stable condition.
“I didn’t see where it started. I just heard gunshots down there. I told her we have to run. She stood there. I ran,” another witness said.
It’s the fourth incident in three days in the NYPD’s 40th Precinct where innocent bystanders have been caught in the crossfire. Those four incidents involved seven victims, ranging in age from 8 to 71, six of which who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
An 8-year-old boy was shot at 5 p.m. on Tuesday along Beekman Avenue.
On Wednesday, a 38-year-old woman was grazed in the arm while standing outside the Mott Haven Houses located at 383 E. 143rd Street just after 7 p.m.
In addition to the shooting at 139th Street, three men were struck by gunfire at E. 174th Street and Jerome Avenue in the Mt. Hope section on Thursday.
A 29-year-old man was shot once in the ankle, and a 67-year-old man was shot once in the arm. They were both taken to St. Barnabas where he’s expected to survive.
Police sources say both of those victims were innocent bystanders.
A third victim, a 24-year-old man, walked into St. Barnabas with numerous gunshot wounds throughout the body. He’s expected to survive. Police are investigating whether he was the intended target of the shooting.
Cops believe at least two of the cases involve the same two gangs, fighting over who knows what.
“Historical beef for the most part. Territory, various things. Just groups not getting along,” Gurley said.
Police are flooding the neighborhood with resources, hoping to cool off the violence but the neighborhood is getting fed up.
“This is our community. We own this community. We cannot allow this to continue to happen,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said.
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