CARNAGE AND CHAOS IN THE STREET
Bx. gunman kills 3, including 1 bystander
A woman sitting at an outdoor health-insurance booth in The Bronx was killed by a stray bullet Thursday in a chaotic eruption of gunfire that also left two men dead, police and witnesses said.
Passers-by scrambled for cover as the mayhem broke out at a strip mall on Castle Hill Avenue between Cincinnatus and Randall avenues near the Castle Hill Houses at around 9:45 a.m.
The gunman was apparently targeting one of two men walking together, but at least one shot fatally caught Arileida Jimenez, 45, in the torso, police said.
“She’s an innocent bystander,” said Robin Ferguson, an area resident who witnessed the carnage and recognized all three victims.
“She didn’t deserve this,” said Ferguson, 53. “[EMTs] were rolling her over, but she also looked gone.”
“I was praying that she would survive.”
Several witnesses said Jimenez was sitting at a Healthfirst insurance table outside the Mannam Medical Center when the violence began.
Jimenez did not work for Healthfirst, a rep said. The medical center declined to comment.
“She had nothing to do with [the shooting]. She just got shot, caught in the crossfire,” said another witness, who would give his name only as Mark.
Mustafa Tarver and Christopher Alleyne, both 33, were also struck, each in the head.
Law-enforcement sources said Tarver was the gunman’s intended target.
Mark said he saw one of the men run down the street bleeding before collapsing in front of a parked Honda SUV.
“He was spitting up blood. Blood was pouring out of him,” Mark said. “He ran and fell where the blood is. He was pouring out blood on the sidewalk.”
A waitress at the nearby Shore Haven Diner said that one of the men was a regular and that he was shot moments after leaving the eatery.
“He came in, asked me to use the bathroom. After he was done, he walked out and got shot dead right in front of the diner,” she said. “He was laying on the ground. The artery in his neck was shooting blood out onto the ground.”
All three victims were taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead.
Tarver and Alleyne were described by locals as “best friends” and fathers of young kids.
The gunman, wearing dark clothes, fled on foot toward Randall Avenue, and police searched for him in a building in the Castle Hill Houses, where both Jimenez and Alleyene lived, but came up empty.
Authorities said that they have surveillance video that “paints a picture of what occurred with the shooting” and that they were looking for more footage.
Police were also investigating whether the shooting was gangrelated, sources said.