NYPD out in force a day after cluster of shootings near NYC schools

[The Bobster]

NYPD out in force a day after cluster of shootings near NYC schools

Police flooded the streets around several Manhattan schools Wednesday morning after an eruption of gang-related violence left three people with gunshot wounds the day before.

nypost.com

NYPD out in force a day after cluster of shootings near NYC schools​

By
Jack Morphet,
Kevin Sheehan and
Steve Janoski


March 15, 2023 3:07pm
Updated













Police flooded the streets around several Manhattan schools Wednesday morning after an eruption of gang-related violence left three people — including two teen students — with gunshot wounds the day before.
Eight NYPD vehicles and more than a dozen officers clustered in front of the Harlem Renaissance High School in East Harlem, about a block away from where a 16-year-old student and a 27-year-old bystander were shot around 1 p.m. Tuesday.
A few miles to the southwest, six cop cars sat on the Upper West Side roads surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. Educational Campus on Amsterdam Avenue, near the intersection where a 17-year-old high schooler was shot at least three times Tuesday morning, prompting the schools to go into lockdown.
Cops believe the incidents — as well as a third report of shots fired at East 105th Street and Park Avenue around 3 p.m. — are all related, NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said at a press briefing in East Harlem following the shootings.
But the small army of New York’s Finest hasn’t necessarily calmed the nerves of anxious parents and students, several of whom said they were still perturbed after Tuesday’s events.
“I’ve been in terror since yesterday!” one Harlem mom said as she dropped her 11-year-old daughter off at the nearby Democracy Prep Harlem Charter School.

A heavy police presence greeted students at several Manhattan high schools Wednesday. Robert Miller

Students at LaGuardia High School locked down after a 17-year-old was shot nearby. Robert Miller
“They had them sheltering in place, and my daughter was texting me and they wouldn’t let me through,” she continued. “Oh my God! For hours. I panicked. This, this, this was the last straw. We’re moving. That’s it! My sister lives in Atlanta and we’re moving!”


Angelique Dunlap, a 24-year-old student at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy on West 61st Street, said she’d been walking by MLK HS on her way to school when the shots rang out.


“I literally saw the dude with the gun and heard the girls screaming,” Dunlap said. “It was really chaotic, I’ve been trying to calm myself down ever since … I still feel on edge, but I feel safer seeing so many police around — so long as they do their jobs and keep us safe.”

Parents and students said the cops made them feel safer after a day of havoc. Robert Miller

Three people were shot Wednesday in what police believe were connected incidents. James Messerschmidt for NY Post
Teisha Wilson, a 17-year-old student at Urban Assembly School for Media Studies in the MLK building, agreed that she feels safer with all the cops present. But that didn’t stop her parents from lecturing her before she started her day.


“My parents gave me a long speech about being safe before I came to school today,” Wilson said. “My parents told me to watch out for anything suspicious and to be mindful who I talk to.”


Police shut down the main entrance to Harlem Renaissance HS Wednesday morning and pushed students through a side door, where officers working a metal detector screened them before they entered.


More cops patrolling the grounds might temporarily make up for a plummeting number of New York City school safety agents, which, according to a Tuesday report, has declined by nearly a quarter since February 2020.


As of last month, there were only 3,900 active NYPD safety agents, the report said. That’s almost 1,200 less than there were just before the pandemic, the city’s Independent Budget Office found.


But it wasn’t just students who were comforted by the sight of more blue uniforms walking the streets.

Cheick Coulibaly has been charged with attempted murder after allegedly shooting a 17-year-old on the Upper West Side.
Joel Sacramento, a 40-year-old barista at Boule & Cherie on Amsterdam Avenue, watched through the store window Tuesday as Cheick Coulibaly, 19, allegedly shot his 17-year-old victim about 9:50 a.m.


Sacramento said the accused shooter and the victim had been part of a group of about seven teenagers who gathered outside the café to talk and smoke weed that morning.


A scuffle broke out, he said. But the pushing and shoving turned ugly when one man pulled out a gun and fired into the victim’s stomach.


“They were friends who started fighting,” Sacramento said. “I thought they were playing, then one pulled out a gun and started shooting. He was shooting from close range. Two shots — bang, bang. When the guy was on the ground, he shot him a third time.

The 17-year-old shooting victim ran to his high school before authorities rushed him to the hospital. Robert Miller
“Two girls helped the guy walk down the street towards the school,” he said. “The girls were crying and hugging him.”


The victim — a student identified only as “Nas” — got up and told his friends he was okay, Sacramento said. The shooter sprinted away, heading uptown, only to be arrested shortly after.





Coulibaly — who was out on bail in a 2021 armed robbery case — has been charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon. He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.


No arrests have been made in the other two incidents.


“I feel safer seeing all the police around today,” Sacramento added. “New York is not safe anymore. Everything’s changed since the pandemic. New York is dangerous now.


“We need more police on the streets. But like yesterday, anything can happen any time.”