1 Dead Following Multiple Shootings In Harlem
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- At least one person is dead following multiple shootings in the span of a few hours in Harlem overnight.
CBS2's Magdalena Doris reported police are investigating three separate shootings on Lenox Avenue.
The first shooting took the life of 61-year-old Odessa Simms. She was watching friends play a pinochle game at 144th Street and Lenox Avenue at 11:45 p.m. Saturday when she was shot in the neck and killed. Sources said she was an innocent bystander when two men started shooting.
"They were shooting at somebody and she was running from it and the bullet caught her," husband Basil Simms told 1010 WINS' Roger Stern.
Simms told CBS2's Steve Langford that the bullet went "straight through her neck."
"Out of all the people in the world ... I don't understand this," Simms said.
Charles Cook was playing pinochle when the shooting happened. Cook explained that one person with a gun was chasing another guy.
"There was nothing you can do, but they gave her CPR for a period of time," Cook told 1010 WINS. "They tried an ambulance, but she had been passed for a while."
1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria reported community and religious leaders prayed outside the playground where Simms was killed.
"Something is wrong when we have to, in our own community, fear sitting out on a bench playing cards, checkers, and chess on a nice summer night," said community leader Iesha Sekou.
The second shooting occurred at 139th Street and Lenox Avenue. Police used cups and bottles to mark bullet casings that surrounded a parked car. No one was hurt at this scene.
The third incident took place at 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue when two men were shot in the leg at 1:45 a.m. Sunday. Police said a 24-year-old was taken to Harlem Hospital in stable condition. A second victim arrived at the hospital a short time later.
Police are searching for the suspects in the shootings.
