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| After the shooting (Photo: Greene) |
By David Greene and Alex Kratz
A wild, sprawling shootout in the Knox-Gates neighborhood in Norwood last Friday night left four people injured, two of them with gunshot wounds.
None of the injuries were life-threatening and police say the shooters were arrested, but the incident underscores a continuing rise in the number of shooting incidents and victims in the 52nd Precinct, which stretches from Norwood to University Heights.
Through August, not including this incident in Knox-Gates or another shooting on Decature Avenue, there had been 20 shooting in the 52nd Precinct this year, compared to 12 during the same period last year. Last year, through August, there had been 14 victims. This year, not including the latest incidents, there had been 25 victims through August.
“It’s frustrating right now,” said Deputy Inspector John D’Adamo, the commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct.
On Friday night, just before 9 p.m., Sept. 17, police were called to Knox Place, between West Gun Hill Road and West Mosholu Parkway North, with reports of a person shot. When they arrived on the scene, they discovered four people wounded – two Hispanic teenage males with gunshot wounds and two girls who were injured when they fell while ducking bullets.
The altercation allegedly began at the Twin Donut shop on Jerome Avenue, but police had several crime scenes established along Knox Place, Gates Place and W. Mosholu Parkway North.
D’Adamo said the scenes were established around where police found bullets, but that those involved in the shootout were “running from each other” along Knox Place. He said the alleged shooter was apprehended in a car with a loaded firearm, along with two other suspects, near Harris Field in Bedford Park. One of them, Jose Guzman, 17, was charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of firearm, according to a police spokesperson.
D’Adamo said the suspect arrested for the shooting was from Manhattan and that there was a reason he was in the area. Despite the Knox-Gates neighborhood’s reputation for heavy drug trafficking, D’Adamo said the incident did not appear to be drug related.
In 2007, one drug-related shooting left a teenager paralyzed. That same year, another apparently non-drug-related shooting left four young men from Tracey Towers, just across Mosholu Parkway, with gunshot wounds.
One resident who asked not to be identified said, “The police are not patrolling as much as they should, because there are a lot of gangs around here . . . they’re not doing enough.”
Earlier last week, police arrested another suspect in a shooting incident at 2860 Decatur Ave.
While shooting incidents continue to pile up, D’Adamo said he’s happy his officers are making arrests and still “extremely proud of the men and women of the 52nd Precinct.”