Gunman on a Scooter Kills 1 and Wounds 3 in Queens and Brooklyn, Police Say
NEW YORK – A gunman killed one person and wounded three others Saturday as he drove a scooter across Brooklyn and Queens, randomly firing at groups of people and at stores in a chaotic two-hour stretch before police arrested him, the New York Police Department said.
The 25-year-old gunman, whose name was not released by authorities, began his rampage around 11 a.m. in Brooklyn, where he shot a 21-year-old man in the left shoulder from behind, prompting officers to respond to the scene near the corner of Ashford Street and Arlington Avenue, Joseph Kenny, an assistant chief at the detective bureau, said at a news conference.
Seventeen minutes later, a report came of another shooting, this time in Queens, which mirrored the one in Brooklyn, Kenny said: a man on a scooter firing a gun.
At the second attack, the gunman fatally shot an 87-year-old man near a nail salon on Jamaica Avenue near the Richmond Hills section of Queens, police said.
A motive for the shootings remained unclear Saturday, although the attacks appeared to be random, Kenny said, noting that the demographics of the victims were all different.
Once police realized the first two shootings were possibly connected, officers began a widespread search for the assailant, the acting police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, said at the news conference.
As officers responded to the homicide, they were alerted to a third shooting at a shop in Queens.
No one was struck, but witnesses described to police how a man on a scooter had been randomly firing at a group of people standing on a corner on Jamaica Avenue, Kenny said.
About 11:35 a.m., eight minutes after the third shooting, the gunman shot a 44-year-old man in the cheek, police said. The victim was taken to a hospital and was in critical condition Saturday evening, Kenny said.
Less than a minute later, the gunman shot a 63-year-old man in his right shoulder, Kenny said, adding that the victim was hospitalized and in stable condition.
The names of the victims have not been released.