(Photo: Carmen Cuesta Roca)
A man was shot and killed at the Lillian Wald Houses in the East Village this afternoon, the police say.
The shooting occurred around 4:30 p.m. and the victim was pronounced dead at Beth Israel Hospital, according to a police spokesperson.
An employee at a mini market across the street from the high-rise housing complex said he heard three or four gunshots.
(Photo: Carmen Cuesta Roca)
Johnathan Caraballo, a 22-year-old resident of 20 Avenue D, near East 3rd Street, said he was in his living room when he heard the shots ring out. “It sounded like a skateboard trying to do a trick,” he said. But when he looked out of his hallway window he saw a man lying just outside the entrance to the building, motionless and face down.
“I was shocked, just staring, thinking, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in front of my building,’” Caraballo said.
Jasmine Valentine, another resident of the Wald Houses, said she knew the victim; both she and Caraballo identified him as an aspiring rapper who went by the nickname Shamrock. “I would always pass him [in the hallway],” she said. “He always had Pampers and baby formula.”
The police were unable to confirm the man’s age or identity, citing an ongoing investigation.
Update, 10 p.m.: The police now say the victim, who was shot four times, was 33.
