2nd cop is infected with bug
A SURREPTITIOUS shooter pumped a dozen deadly bullets into a Brooklyn man inside an SUV early Friday before the 13th slug killed the victim’s innocent girlfriend.
The 4:40 a.m. ambush outside the Hall Next Door club in East New York left Devon Hannibal, 27, dead behind the wheel of his vehicle — with Christina Stubbs, 23, slain in the seat beside him, cops said.
Stubbs was killed by a single stray bullet as the fugitive shooter emptied the clip of his 9-mm. pistol through the window of the red Dodge Durango.
“It had to be a big damn gun, because I heard every last shot as if I was sitting right there,” said neighborhood resident Deborah Edwards, 58. “It sounded like cannons!”
The suspect said nothing before opening fire, and cops were puzzled as to a motive.
But NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said Stubbs was killed by a bullet meant for the driver. All the shell casings at the murder scene were recovered from the driver’s side of the vehicle.
Thirteen bullet holes were visible in the driver’s side window of the Durango as it was towed from the scene, and Hannibal — the father of two sons — was hit in the head, chest and left arm.
“It sounded like a machine gun to me,” said a second neighbor, Donna Llanos. “It was consistent, nonstop, very loud . . . It was rapid shooting, like machine-gun shooting.”
Both victims’ families were crushed by the early morning slayings that followed a graduation party with about 100 people in the club.
“The family is devastated, at a loss for words,” said the slain woman’s aunt Michelle Patterson. “Chrissie was a sweet, nice, shy girl who was always there for her family. This should have never happened to her.”
Stubbs lived with her father in Brooklyn. Last year, Christina’s younger brother Nathaniel died after a Florida car crash.
Eon Hannibal, 54, said his two grandsons were unaware that their father was never coming home.
“They don’t know,” he said. “They don’t understand. They expected their father back soon. That’s a conversation we’ve got to have.”
Hannibal was at a loss to explain why the killer came after his son.
“My son was a good boy,” he said. “What went down over there, I haven’t a clue. I’m lost right now.”
Father and son spoke Thursday before Devon, who left behind a twin sister, headed out for the night. He worked at a local Foot Locker store.
Mourners gathered at Hannibal’s Brooklyn home, with family and friends embracing outside as arriving cars lined the street.
Inside, the small and somber crowd sipped Corona beers and played music as they remembered the murdered man.
The shooter, described as black and in his 20s, wearing a white shirt and red shorts, ran off after firing the last shot, cops said.
Though no arrests were made, cops recovered a pair of discarded red pants one block from the scene in a subway underpass.
Boyce said there was no indication of any problem inside the club before the shooter appeared out of nowhere and squeezed off the shots.
“This is a very broad street,” he noted as the investigation continued. “There are a lot of cameras here. We’ll know more as we push forward.” A SECOND East Harlem police officer has been been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease, officials said Friday.
The 23rd Precinct cop took himself to an urgent care center while he was off duty earlier this week and learned the bacteria that causes the disease was found in his system.
“The officer did not require any hospitalization and is being treated with medication,” NYPD spokesman Lt. John Grimpel said.
Earlier this month a cop in the same precinct with a pre-existing medical condition was found to have the disease.
The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association hired a private firm to run tests in the stationhouse after learning of the cop’s infection. Those tests came back positive for traces of the bacteria, according to police.
But extensive tests of the water systems by the Department of Health came back negative for the Legionella bacteria, officials said. Further testing will be conducted in the coming weeks.
Legionnaires’ disease — with its flu-like symptoms — killed a dozen New Yorkers and sickened another 127 during a 2015 outbreak in the South Bronx.