A New Year’s Eve argument sent a father and son to the hospital with gunshot wounds, and the police on the hunt for the perpetrator.
An argument broke out at about 8:20 p.m. on December 31, outside the Reribo Social Club at 827 Morris Park Avenue, according tto the police. The shouting match led one man to shoot both 59-year-old Lulash Kinaj and his 34-year-old son, Edmond, in the leg.
The father and son were transported to Jacobi Hospital. Both are expected to survive their injuries.
Officials with the 49thPrecinct did not provide specifics about what ignited the argument, but they confirmed that the two victims knew the shooter.
Police are now looking for a single shooter, but as of Monday, January 3, no arrests had been made.
The incident is the latest in a rash of unrelated shootings that seem to be triggered by the same thing: petty arguments and disputes.
“Things tend to happen in spurts, but nothing is connected,” 49th Precinct Captain Kevin Nicholson said. “It’s just people settling disputes with guns.”
Most recently, an off-duty police officer was shot in the lower back outside the Pelham Bay Diner in mid-December. The shooting occurred after a scuffle over a dented car. About two weeks after the incident, a 22-year-old south Bronx resident was arrested in connection with the shooting.
About a month before the diner incident, a 75-year-old man was randomly hit with a stray bullet at the intersection of Wallace and Astor avenues. Witnesses said they saw two groups of teens arguing before the shots rang out, hitting the man in the leg.
A few months before that incident, there was a shooting involving two teens during a party following an argument about a girl.
Before the start of the year, however, the precinct enjoyed a steady decline in gun-related violence, and during several monthsno incidents were reported.
According to Nicholson, the precinct is continuing with the successful tactics from the previous year in hopes of turning around the bad stretch.
In 2010, the precinct saw a spike in the number of gun arrests, with 68 people arrested for gun possession – a 25 percent increase over the 54 arrests in 2009.
