Harlem Deli Worker Tony Grier Says Military Training Kicked In When He Was Struck By Stray Bullet Protecting Kids
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Police are investigating three more shootings that happened overnight in New York City.
Meanwhile, CBS2's Natalie Duddridge spoke exclusively with a man who was hit by a stray bullet while working at a deli in Harlem.
Police say an argument turned violent around 6 p.m. Tuesday near Fifth Avenue and East 118th Street. Surveillance video shows a man in a white hoodie pull out a gun, sending a group of men running, as another climbs into the backseat of a car to take cover.
Innocent bystander Wilbert Grier, who goes by Tony, was hit in the crossfire.
"Just pretty shaken up, still shaken up from the impact," he told Duddridge.
Bullets appear to have bounced off the glass of the deli where he works.
Grier and the deli owner are veterans, so he said they knew what to do.
"We were in Desert Storm together in the same platoon," he said. "So we started searching each other for bullet holes."
He said he was hit while trying to protect nearby children.
"While the bullets were firing, we had to stand in front of the kids until they scrambled to safety," he said.
It was the latest in a violent rash of shootings.
Police investigated a carjacking around 12:15 a.m. on the small Washington Bridge, not the GWB, near 181st Street. They say a 45-year-old driver was shot at least once in the head, causing him to crash. The suspects -- a group of men on dirt bikes -- then stole the man's vehicle and left him for dead, but he survived.
"It's very scary. I was out here last night, and I didn't even know that. I saw the cops there, but I didn't know what was going on," said Washington Heights resident Jordan Rivera. "So to know that that happened is ridiculous. I actually work around here, so it's really scary."
Half an hour later, several shots were fired on 41st Street in Times Square. No one was hurt.
Then at 2:15 a.m. in Jamaica, Queens, three people were shot during a fight near 144th Street and Jamaica Avenue. One man was critically injured.
There have been 945 shooting victims so far this year.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo met with Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams on Wednesday to discuss the growing violence.
Grier said the city and the NYPD need to get a handle on crime.
"Stop them from coming into the city, that's the best you can do... The traffickers," he said.
The NYPD is responding with new initiatives and has assigned 100 officers to address violence in the Bronx, where a 13-year-old was killed in a gang-related shooting Sunday.
