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June 24, 2007

It's time to move

I was supposed to close on the purchase of my new condo on Friday, after 9 months of delays. It didn't happen, because the developers still don't have their stuff together. They're now so far behind schedule that one wonder if they'll ever get the building finished, and why it has taken so long.

Meanwhile the warm temperatures have brought a surge of violence in the neighborhood over the last three weeks. Start with last night. Within a 5 block radius of here, there were 6 shootings. From CBS:

Harlem Violence: 6 Shootings, 4 Blocks, 3 Hours

NEW YORK Harlem streets turned into a shooting gallery overnight as six men were wounded in four separate shootings.

The shootings happened within four blocks and three hours, but police say they don't appear to be related. All the victims are in stable condition.

The violence began with a double shooting at 125th Street and Lenox Avenue shortly after 10 p.m.

Within an hour, a 17-year-old and a 23-year-old had been shot in separate incidents on neighboring blocks on Lenox Avenue.

Then there was another double shooting shortly before 1:00 a.m. Sunday at 124th Street and 7th Avenue. Police say they've taken a suspect into custody in that shooting.

The worst part of all this is that the victims refuse to talk to police, part of the "stop snitching" mantra. Sometimes people in this community are their own worst enemies.

And a gun battle at a fried chicken joint overnight Friday:

A fistfight escalated into gunfire in Harlem early yesterday, leaving an MTA employee dead and the shooter wounded by police who intervened, officials and witnesses said.

The alleged gunman, Daniel Israel, 20, opened fire on Warren Dandridge, 26, a subway conductor from Staten Island, outside a chicken take-out restaurant near the intersection of East 110th Street and Fifth Avenue around 12:20 a.m., striking him in the abdomen, buttocks and ankle, police said.

Israel also fired at two of Dandridge's friends who ran to assist him, wounding one in the arm and grazing the other, police said. Two police officers assigned to a nearby housing project heard the gunshots as they approached in a van and saw Israel running from the scene, a police source said.

Both officers chased the suspect on foot for a short distance and fired at him, striking him once in the abdomen. A police source said that the suspect's gun discharged during the chase but that it was still being determined if he fired at the two officers. Dandridge was transported to St. Luke's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

Dandridge was a subway conductor with the MTA's IRT division and had been on the job about 18 months, according to MTA officials. (Source)

Two weeks earlier there were shootings on the same corner of Lenox:

Four shot in Harlem shooting

(New York - WABC, June 10, 2007) - Police continue to hunt for the person who shot and injured four people in Harlem.

It happened Saturday night on Lenox Avenue between 126th Street and 127th Street.
The two men and two women were taken to Harlem Hospital and are all expected to survive.

So far, police say they have no suspects and no word on what sparked the shooting.

The shootings come a few days after seven people were left dead in a 24-hour cycle of violence in Brooklyn and Harlem. (Source)

And a few days before that, a shooting in the projects of Spanish Harlem. Notice how the news reports don't say that this is in the projects.

Double shooting in E. HarlemTwo men fatally shot

Two men were fatally shot outside an apartment complex in East Harlem this morning.

Eyewitness News has learned the victims -- ages 17 and 27 -- were both hit in front of 404 East 105th Street at 4:30 a.m.

Police say the 27-year-old man was shot numerous times, and the 17-year-old was shot once in the chest. They were both rushed to nearby hospitals and pronounced dead.

Witnesses tell police the suspects, as many as three men, were seen fleeing the scene on foot. No arrests were immediately made. (Source)

The good news is that these shootings are rarely random and usually stem from kerfuffles over drugs, lovers, or whatever. Still, isn't it time that I move?

Posted by adrianjo at June 24, 2007 06:03 PM