Brazen Queens shoot kills two
Two men with gang affiliations were fatally shot in broad daylight Friday riding in the front seat of a car in Queens, while a young woman and little boy in the backseat were miraculously spared, police said.
The shocking attack occurred about 11:45 a.m. on Rockaway Blvd. near Brookville Blvd., with the mortally wounded driver — a 26-year-old ex-con recently paroled after serving time for gun possession — darting through oncoming traffic and finally crashing into a fence near JFK Airport, police said.
The driver had been shot in the chest and shoulder. His front-seat passenger, also 26, was shot in the head and chest. Medics rushed them both to Jamaica Hospital but they could not be saved.
Neither the 20-yearold woman, who was dating the driver, nor the 4-year-old boy, whose dad was sitting in the front passenger seat, were hit by gunfire. They were taken to Cohen Children’s Medical Center with what police described as non life-threatening injuries.
“Thank God,” Assistant Chief Ruben Beltran said, “the innocent child in the rear seat was not seriously injured — or worse.”
The Nissan Maxima in which the victims were riding had temporary New Jersey plates.
It wasn’t clear how many people fired or whether the shots came from a moving car or someone on the street. Nor was it clear if the victims’ car was moving when the bullets flew. But one witness, who wouldn’t give his name, said he saw another car driving alongside the victims as the gunfire erupted.
There have been no arrests.
Antonius Lewis, 53, a worker at a parking lot near the scene, couldn’t believe the broad-daylight shooting could happen along such a heavily traveled street.
“You gotta be crazy,” Lewis said. “What are you thinking to kill someone there? This is like something in a movie.
“That’s third-world country business and it’s happening right here.”
Beltran called the incident a tragedy and noted “the continued and repeated connection between violence and parole.”