After seeing a group of people lined up with their hands behind their backs surrounded by caution tape and police officers Wednesday morning, Throggs Neck residents were gossiping their theories about suspicious activity at an East Tremont storefront.
Some of them weren’t far off.
A police source confirmed with the Bronx Times Thursday that an illegal nightclub was operating in the back room behind a 3789 E. Tremont Ave. store called Got it All, which is in the 45th Precinct next to CVS.
Multiple firearms were discharged Wednesday morning, injuring two men and damaging a nearby storefront.
According to a police source, cops took about 18 people into custody from the scene for questioning, and 15 were arrested after illegal guns were found inside the establishment.
Police said they received a call at 7:13 a.m. about a person who was shot at inside the commercial space.
According to police, at around 6:46 a.m., patrons got into a dispute that led to a 26-year-old man suffering gunshot wounds to his left leg and left ankle and a 25-year-old man suffering a gunshot wound to his leg. Both men were brought to Jacobi Hospital in stable condition.
Police confirmed a gun shot also flew to the other side of East Tremont Avenue, going through the steel gate outside Willen Pharmacy, which was closed at the time. The bullet cracked the pharmacy window, according to police.
As of Friday, police are still looking for two suspects who shot fire before fleeing the scene by foot. Both males with light complexion, one was last seen wearing a long sleeve gray sweater, blue jeans and multicolored sneakers and the other was last seen wearing a dark colored coat with a fur lined hood, dark colored pants and multicolored sneakers.
Police revealed on Thursday that two men — 24-year-old Jyier Johnson and 26-year-old Diandre Holder — were arrested for criminal use of a firearm and reckless endangerment, along with criminal possession of a weapon.
Johnson has previously been convicted for criminal possession of a firearm and criminal sale of a controlled substance.
Thirteen others were each arrested for criminal possession of a weapon, including store owners Louis Nieves, 43, and Idalisse Suarez, 32, as well as Reginal Muhammad, 33, Jason Vasquez, 20, Joshua Cordon, 25, Rafael Pion, 40, Angel Martinez, 41, Natalie Rondon, 24, Ashly Morales, 34, Krystle Zayas-Rivera, 39, Elizabeth Martinez, 35, Crystal Rivera, 39 and Yvonne Padilla, 55.
The two unidentified injured men were among those arrested.
Throggs Neck Business Improvement District Executive Director Bob Jaen told the Bronx Times he never received complaints about the store, which sells a variety of affordable items, from baby clothes to makeup, televisions and exercise equipment.
“They seemed like very nice people, I met both owners and they looked like they were just like everybody else in the neighborhood trying to make a living,” Jaen said.
In an April 2021 blog post, the BID described the store as having a wide range of merchandise, “including, quite literally, everything from kitchen sinks to books, and just about everything in between.”
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
This story was updated at 7:18 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 4.
Reach Aliya Schneider at aschneider@schnepsmedia.com or (718) 260-4597. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes.
