West 23rd Street and Mermaid Avenue, the scene of the shooting (Source: Google Maps)
Gunshots rang out on Mermaid Avenue yesterday afternoon, when Coney Island resident Ronnell Bradley, 21, was gunned down outside of a bodega as children played nearby.
Cops were called to the scene just after 4:00 p.m. for a person shot outside of 2327 Mermaid Avenue. They arrived to find Bradley with several gunshot wounds to the torso and legs. He was taken to Coney Island where he was pronounced dead.
There were no arrests and police had no suspects as of early this morning.
According to NBC, two young girls were also nearly clipped by bullets until a member of the Guardian Angels volunteer crime patrol pulled them to safety.
“The two little girls were shouting ‘Mommy, mommy,’” the Guardian Angel, Jose Colon, told the outlet.
Colon also spoke to NY1, telling them that violence remains a serious problem in the community and neighbors are afraid to speak out.
“Too much, a lot of people and they see something suspicious—they be quiet. And they say, ‘You snitch, you get…’ You know what I mean,” Colon told NY1.
The intersection where Bradley was gunned down is the same corner where a 10-year-old boy and 25-year-old man were struck by stray bullets in June. In May, another double shooting on Mermaid Avenue led local pols to call for more cops in the residential portion of Coney Island.
As of August 10, that latest date for which there are statistics, there have been 13 shootings, with 15 victims, in 2014 in the 60th Precinct, which patrols Coney Island, Brighton Beach and Gravesend. That’s a decrease from the same time period in 2013, which saw 17 shootings and 23 victims. Though shootings are down in the 60th Precinct, citywide gun violence is surging, with a 10.3 percent increase in incidents.
