New Clues In Search For Shooter Who Fired Bullets At Luxury Apartment Building
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police now have new clues as they search for the mystery shooter firing bullets from Roosevelt Island toward a luxury high-rise on the Upper East Side.
Newly released surveillance video shows the outline of the suspected shooter and several flashes from gun fire, CBS2's Natalie Duddridge reported. Another video shows a man and woman – identified as persons of interest – who are wanted for questioning in the case.
Police believe five bullets were fired early Saturday morning, shattering the windows of two luxury apartments on 72nd Street.
"Pretty scary," one area resident said.
"It makes me glad that my apartment doesn't face the river, but it's frightening," said another. "It's frightening that that kind of thing would happen."
The windows are now boarded up with plywood after tenants on the 14th and 32nd floors reported the damage.
Police said they recovered a bullet from a .38 caliber gun.
"It shocked me a lot because I never heard something like that over here," building worker Frances Garcia said. "I was seeing everybody – officers, detectives – and I was like, well it's something serious."
"If somebody was in one of the rooms standing right there by the window, they would've gotten hit," said a woman.
Firearms instructor John Aaron told CBS2 bullets can travel far enough to span the East River.
"Bullets have a range of, at minimum, a mile to five or six miles. So if someone fires a gun, it's going to land up somewhere," he said.
He and investigators do not believe specific units were targeted.
"I doubt that sincerely. They might be able to hit the building, but you know, hitting a point on a target – it's not something for the casual user. You know you have to have some type of ability to hit it, especially at a distance like that," said Aarron.
Police have put up Crime Stoppers posters in the area, offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to an arrest.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime stoppers website atWWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577.
