Officers in the 45th Precinct are looking for two suspects in connection with a shooting that happened on City Island early Thursday, August 5.
According to police, two other suspects were already arrested in connection with the 5 a.m. shooting outside a Tier Street housing complex, and a third faces a summons for a concealed weapon.
Two additional suspects remain on the loose after they fled the island in a light-grey Acura with Delaware license plates.
Police said Keino Taylor, 18, of 1175 Evergreen Ave., and Cory Van Dyke, 22, of 1122 Wheeler Ave., were charged with reckless endangerment. A 50-year-old Hispanic woman, who is a resident of the Tier Street complex, was given a summons for carrying a weapon.
Police did not reveal the woman’s name because the investigation is ongoing. They said additional charges for the three are pending.
Officials with the Bronx County District Attorney said the office has declined to prosecute the two cases because of insufficient evidence. However, the case could reopen if additional charges are filed, officials said.
No gun was recovered, so police believe the shooter is one of the suspects that escaped, 45th Precinct community affairs officer Miguel Caldero said, adding that the department is continuing to review surveillance tapes to piece together the case.
According to Caldero, the three were apprehended thanks to one brave Tier Street resident who chased the suspects after the shooting.
Caldero, who declined to give the man’s name because the two suspects remain at large, said the resident had seen the group about two weeks before the Thursday incident and decided to confront them about being in the apartment building so late on Thursday.
He was met with gun-fire and the suspects fled.
“The complainant ran after them to see where they were going,” he said. “As they ran he followed them but stayed back a bit, just to keep up with where they were going.”
According to other media sources, the complainant was accompanied by two corrections officers who took down the three suspects and kept them from escaping until police got to the scene. Police did not confirm these details.
Caldero said once police arrived they put the island on lock-down so that nobody could escape.
The two suspects at large “just left those three behind,” he said.
For Bill Stanton, City Island Civic Association president, the incident is a symptom of a larger problem afflicting the island.
“City Island has always been a charmed place, but now we have unscrupulous builders and real estate agents that are overbuilding and underselling,” he said, adding that the practice, which he believes also involves illegally subdividing and renting out apartments, has brought in drug-dealers and users that Stanton blames for the recent spike in crime rates.
“It’s the ghetto-fication of the community, and I say that without meaning any race, creed or color.”
However, Stanton is encouraged by the vigilance of the residents, and their willingness to stand up for the community.
“I think it was great the City Islanders stepped up, called police and helped,” he said. “I give thumbs-up to the good Samaritan, a thumbs-up to the police and a thumbs-down to unscrupulous real estate developers.”
