A man has been shot and killed overnight on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, and the gunman remains at large as investigators search for clues, News 12 reported. Crime scene unit detectives spent the morning canvassing the street, hoping to find any evidence that could lead them to whoever carried out the deadly attack on the busy Bronx thoroughfare.
Police said they had responded to a call reporting an assault on the Grand Concourse just after two o'clock in the morning. When officers arrived, they found a man who had been shot in the chest and groin area, and he was rushed to a hospital, but he did not survive the injuries he had suffered in the shooting.
In the hours that followed, police blocked off the entrance to 2051 Grand Concourse as the investigation got under way at the scene. Investigators were seen placing evidence markers along the Grand Concourse and nearby East Burnside Avenue, working only steps away from a trail of blood that had been left behind at the location.
The killing came only a day after new data released by the NYPD pointed to a decline in gun violence and major crimes across the city over the first five months of the year. For people living in the area, that reassuring statistic sat uneasily against the reality of yet another deadly shooting unfolding on their own street overnight.
Neighbours who passed the crime scene voiced a mix of shock and weary resignation. One said they were shocked, even though such violence had been happening lately across New York, while another, asked whether the incident left them scared, said they could not afford to live in fear every single time they left home for work or made their way back.
That resident said being careful while walking the streets had simply become part of daily life, even as they acknowledged that it was not a decent way to live. Their words underlined the sense of unease that lingered around the block in the wake of the overnight killing, in a neighbourhood where many had hoped the worst was behind them.
Adding to the difficulty for investigators, two surveillance cameras point directly at the crime scene, but the building's superintendent said they had not been working for more than two years. With no footage from those cameras and little else to go on, police said there was no further information yet on what led up to the attack, and the shooter remained on the loose.