6 Senseless Killings This Year In Mount Vernon, NY

Mayor Ernie Davis

MOUNT VERNON — A 24-year-old city man who was sitting in a sport utility vehicle not far from his home was shot to death by a lone gunman Friday evening, police said.

Police were called to Union Avenue and East Fifth Street around 5:30 p.m. and found the victim with a gunshot wound to his chest, Police Commissioner Carl Bell said.

Police Emergency Service Unit officers worked frantically to save the man’s life at the scene, but he died in the street, Bell said.

The shooting was the sixth homicide in Mount Vernon this year. There have been three homicides this month. There were three last month. An unidentified man was shot to death in a Mercedes-Benz at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday on the 400 block of South 10th Avenue. Police have not yet identified that victim.

Mayor Ernie Davis was at the scene of the Friday night shooting and called on community members to report whatever they saw to the police. He said the killing of the man in the Mercedes-Benz and the Friday night shooting were not random acts, even though they do not appear to be connected.

“These are focused acts,” Davis said.

Davis said gunmen will not feel comfortable shooting people in broad daylight if they know that they will be reported.

“One thing is clear is that the neighborhood is going to have to demand that we look out for each other,” said Davis. “We are in this together. We cannot allow this. It is arrogance. It is ignorant. And, it can’t be tolerated. It can be stopped.”

Police did not release the name of Friday’s victim because relatives were not yet notified. About 7:30 p.m. a woman who was crying and being held by a man walked up to the crime scene, which had been cordoned off by yellow tape and identified themselves as the victim’s relatives. The violence has to STOP especially in a city so small. Mount Vernon is only 4 square miles in size with an estimated population of 78,000 people.