An altercation on 93rd street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues erupted in gunshots and an apparent stabbing at around 6:30 on Wednesday.
We talked to several people on the block, but details are still sketchy. At least two men were fighting. “Around 6:35 pm, two young men were fighting,” one witness said. “I heard at least 4 gunshots. Our doorman witnessed one pulling out a knife. The other man started shooting a gun, first up into the air, then directly at the other man. I called 911 and the police are on the scene right now in front of approx. 125-127 W 93rd.”
Multiple witnesses told us they heard several shots fired, but it was unclear if anyone was hit. One person on the block told us there was blood on the stairs of 143 West 93rd street. Police tape surrounded several rowhouses on the North side of the block.
After the shooting, there were at least a dozen police officers on the block canvassing the area, some with flashlights. A man was inside the back of one of the police cruisers in handcuffs and helicopters were hovering ahead.
Captain Marlon Larin, who was leading the 24th precinct community council meeting on Wednesday night, told our reporter at the meeting that police had found shell casings; he said there was no one in custody yet but he was headed to the scene and would update us later.
UPDATE, 10:30 p.m.: Larin tells us “We have two men in custody: the stabber and the stabbing victim (active warrant). The person who fired the shots has not been apprehended. No one was hit by a bullet.”
If you have any information on this incident, please call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. You may remain anonymous.
We will update if we learn more.
UWS north of 90th is lost.
Yes you are right its lost! We fought the good fight to suburbanize it and make it as white as possible but just not enough of us……maybe we should subsidize some developers to build more luxury housing…..wait we already did that! still those pesky poor and middle class people are still here…I heard soon its going on the Fox News no go zone list….better pack up the Lexus quick….hopefully Guliani will come back and make the city safe for us good pure Americans again.Better sell that apartment quick and get whatever you can out of it. Let me know if you need some help moving.
you must like living 100 feet from where people are being shot and stabbed, definitely gives me that warm tingly Olde New York feeling.
you are also implying that only non-whites are committing the crimes, which is racist.
My husband witnessed this within 100 ft on his walk home from work tonight. We work 90+ hours a week each to afford our rent on W94th st. Our neighborhood has become less and less tolerable- the streets are filthy, I’ve become afraid to walk my dog after dark, and now this. We’re lucky he made it home safe tonight. Enough is enough. Good bye NYC. We’re moving out. It’s not worth it.
Bye Felicia.
Bailey, that’s a bit over dramatic. This could have happened anywhere in the city. Disputes between thugs often end badly. The UWS, even north of 90th is still one of the safest neighborhoods in the city.
Miriam,
he’s not being over dramatic. Those kind of “incidents” are happening more and more often in the W90s. There’s a lot of criminals hanging around this area and it’s not safe! It’s time for something to be done to make this neighborhood safer!
Well you should have been here in the 60’s and 70’s. Please everyone should relax and realize this is New York. It will always have some nitty grit to it! No matter how high one’s rent is or how much one’s condo cost. It is the city.
Well we could always get rid of the homeless shelters and housing projects…
Agreed Miriam. We’re in the city. The mornings are still full of strollers, and the park nearby is full of young families. Restaurants on that corner, one of which is a trendy farm to table type place, are packed most nights with families. The entire UWS is dirtier since shortly after Rudy left IMO. If this were the Murray Hill rag we would hear of crimes too. The empty store fronts in the West 70’s don’t do much for those streets either.
Yet another nail in the coffin of the quality of life in the West ’90’s. And for those of you that will go out of your way to excuse it as yet another isolated incident (among an ocean of “isolated incidents”), be sure to duck the stray bullets while you’re standing on your soapbox.
I live on that block just east of where this happened. And I had just come home, walking up that block from the bus stop an hour before this happened. Say what you will, but it is scary. I agree that in the last several months there have been a lot more of these incidents happening. Read DNA info, West side rag & the Spirit. There should be more police around. Saying this happens everywhere and that it’s better than it used to be isn’t an answer. It’s frightening…
Somehow people are always dicking bullets smfh this neighborhood isnt that bad .. Shit happens everywhere fights happen all the time… Unless your moving to the subs good luck because ive seen videos of shit happening there too. Im not excusing any of this its all wrong shooting stabing.. Its the people from other neighborhoods that come here and do this been here 28+years u have ur nights were someone drunk will get in your face but that happens everywhere.. The streets are mostly clear at night.. There should be more cameras and cops around.. That will help a lot..
Please… i have lived in the 90’s for 36 years.. The neighborhood is safer now than it has ever been. There was a time when you couldnt walk a block without seeing a drug deal or hearing gunshots (80’s-90’s).
Jeez, that’s right in front of the school!
Exactly this happens everywhere! It’s NYC people! Just be grateful that you didn’t live around here in the 80’s when you couldn’t walk up Amsterdam ave or barely get a food delivery because they were getting robbed! If you are worried about things like this happening then move some place that it doesn’t happen! Even in the suburbs, crazy stuff happens!
Um, I’m not sure that’s the right way to be looking at it.
“Sucks that you have cancer, but at least it’s not 70 years ago – we all had polio!”
New Yorkers elected Comrade De Blasio.
Since then, and in the future, crime will rise in the city, every where.
Having a mayor who does not have the police back in his vision will bring NYC back to the wild days of the 1970’s.
Welcome to the jungle fellow New Yorkers.
It’s always been a jungle out there. Concrete Jungle no matter who is in office. Has been and most likely will always be!
If you want grit, thousands of homeless being sheltered and gun shots stay on the UWS. Want a better life for your family? Move across the park.
Exactly this. My husband I love love love our w80s neighborhood and are starting to think about buying an apartment. Apartments above 90th are more affordable but we don’t want to live in the land of homeless shelters and extreme liberals.
Very true, too many lunatic fringe libs in the neighborhood. They are as out of touch as the right wing fringe. I’ve always considered myself liberal but this small but vocal fringe element is insane.
The same people that want stricter gun control seem to accept gun shots in our neighborhood as a part of living in NYC.
They protest using rat poison in Riverside Park because a falcon or 10 will die, but say nothing when a shelter residents son stabs a super in broad daylight.
They rant and rave about luxury high rises “changing” the neighborhood, but busing in 400 homeless people in the middle of the night is just fine with them.
@Sam
Well said! Yes, it does seem to be the same people who are pushing for more and more gun control and then tell people to toughen up because gun violence is a part of living in the city. In the end the law abiding gun owners suffer and the criminals do whatever they want. France has very strict gun laws and the Charlie Hebdo terrorists had no trouble getting fully automatic weapons.
Well given that you have to have a permit for everything and that there is zero private ownership of full autos I would say that’s relatively tough. And obviously they managed to get them when they needed them so whatever the barriers they were overcome. And by the by gun crimes with fully automatic weapons are exceedingly rare in the USA and usually receive national news coverage.
You make assumptions very easily…I have been wondering how those Hebdo shooters got their weapons, because you’re right that France has tougher (still not sure I’d say very tough) gun laws than here in the US. From what I’ve been able to find, the authorities believe the weapons were likely leftovers from the Balkans war in the 1990s, and that it was actually quite an effort for the terrorists to procure them.
Put another way, as I said to my wife: I was wondering how these killers got their automatic weapons; knowing France it must have been difficult to do so, but I guess they still managed. Then again, if this were the US, we wouldn’t even be asking how they managed to get the guns; it would have been dead simple to do so. And I’ll take the former situation rather than the latter!
TRUTH!!
Thank you. I’ll see you over on the East Side…
Good maybe the yuppies will get the hell out now!
Oh, man this is nothing. You should have seen this area back in 1626 when the Native Americans ran the place. Good thing they sold it to the Dutch who cleaned things up.
Thanks for that. I laughed…
It’s an idiotic argument for some of you to excuse crime as just another “gritty” aspect of living in the City. If your child was hit by a bullet from thugs shooting at each other with impunity on your own block, would you still feel the same way? Would you tell your child, “That’s the breaks, son, get used to it – it used to be worse”?
How can you people not be outraged by these developments and stand in support with your neighbors that believe we have a right to safe streets?
It just doesn’t make sense to me.
> It’s an idiotic argument for some of you to excuse crime as just another “gritty” aspect of living in the City.
I agree. That fatalistic attitude–that crime is inevitable–contributed to the last crime wave. And they were proven wrong by Guiliani. Good public policy and law enforcement absolutely keep crime in check. It is unfortunate that we have to keep relearning the same lessons of the past.
I’m just curious if any folks who wax poetic about how dangerous the UWS is these days (or just certain parts of it), are the crime stats ever consulted? For the 24th precinct (among many others), the numbers are startling positive; here is the latest release, https://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/downloads/pdf/crime_statistics/cs024pct.pdf
@Brian
While your point is a good one and the statistics still do look could there are still two things that should give us pause. One is that while it is certainly possible that a cluster of criminal events are a Poisson distribution and do not constitute a trend, it is also possible that these are sentinel events of an emerging trend. Time will tell. Second, there have been fairly widespread stories of the NYPD manipulating crime stats by discouraging filing of formal complaints or pushing crimes into less serious categories.
Like I said, your point is good but I think there are a number of variables at play.
Thanks, Brian. It’s frustrating to read some of the ridiculous comments in this discussion.
Because “stats” don’t mean anything when you don’t feel safe walking the streets of your own neighborhood. Maybe you don’t have a wife or children or any loved ones but real people live in these neighborhoods and pay a pretty penny to do so, I might add.
In the 80’s safety was a block to block issue. I have had family here since then.
And I live here as well. In the last two years there has been a lot more filth and begging and intimidating behavior on the streets. Gun play and violence generally restricted to Amsterdam appears to be make inroads west across Broadway. The UWS has an unfair % of homeless shelters compared to other areas. Recently there has been a pronounced uptick in quality of life issues in the area. Not mentioned in this article was the robbery at gunpoint of the Super Taco Truck.
Do not think for a moment all the crime that goes on is reported.
I would say that the area around 96th street and Broadway should have round the clock police coverage, due to the fact the subway presents easy access and flight after a crime has transpired. Stats(maps) show a greater number of petty crimes near the station.
Things are far better here than they have been in decades, that does not mean we cant do better. To state that any individual is at fault is to abdicate our own responsibility for our situations and holding others to a higher standard. We may not get what we expect, but if we only expect crime and violence I would suggest we have set the bar too low.
What did these men look like?