A man was shot on Fifth Avenue Wednesday along the corridor where politicians are demanding police surveillance cameras to combat drug dealing.
Police say that the 34-year-old victim and his shooter got into a dispute near the corner of 69th Street around 7:40 pm. The victim began to walk off, but the shooter called after him, and told the other man to come back and follow him. The two were heading toward 68th Street when the shooter punched the victim in the face. The victim punched back, and the assailant pulled a gun.
Security cameras from nearby Fifth Avenue Wireless and Travel Agency show the victim jumping behind a nearby car, but the trigger-happy attacker squeezed off a shot that hit the victim in the leg. The gun-toting thug fled the scene.
Ali Abdul, an employee at Fifth Avenue Wireless and Travel Agency, said he heard the shot and ran out of his store to see the victim bleeding on the street.
“We all heard it, but nobody saw it happen. We all went outside and saw him on the ground,” said Abdul.
Abdul said he didn’t recognize the man, but overheard him say that he lived around the corner on 69th Street.
Residents of the blocks just off Fifth Avenue between 69th and 75th streets have long complained of thuggish drug-dealers plying their trade on the corners, and some neighbors are attempting to organize a civilian patrol to break up the illicit trafficking.
Community Board 10, Councilman Vincent Gentile (D–Bay Ridge), and state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge) are pushing to have the NYPD put at least one surveillance camera on the thoroughfare to help identify and eliminate dealers, though the police department could not give a time frame for when the video recorder will arrive.
Abdul said he approved of the plan to bring the corridor under the watchful eye of the police.
“I think that would be a good idea, so this won’t happen again,” said Abdul.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.
