3 shot & killed on NYC street in the middle of the morning

Three people were killed in a barrage of gunfire near a strip mall in The Bronx on the first day of summer Thursday — and the victims include an apparently innocent bystander, police said. The mayhem erupted on Castle Hill Avenue between Cincinnatus and Randall Avenues nearby NYCHA’s Castle Hill Houses at about 9:45 a.m., sending fearful bystanders ducking for cover. The gunman walked up towards two of the victims, identified by sources as Mustafa Tarver, 33, and Christopher Alleyne, 33, “and began firing at them,” said NYPD assistant chief of detectives in the Bronx Jason Wilcox. The shooter, who remains at-large, “fired several shots from in front of 620 Castle Hill Avenue,” Wilcox said. Police on Thursday night released a grainy image of a person of interest – a man in shorts, a blue shirt or sweater and a black baseball cap. Tarver and Alleyne, who locals said were “best friends” and fathers who lived at the Castle Hill Houses, suffered gunshot wounds to the head. Law enforcement sources said Tarver was the gunman’s intended target. The third victim, identified by sources as Arileida Jimenez, 45, also of the Castle Hill Houses, was shot in the torso. “It appears as if she might be an innocent bystander, but the investigation is very early in its stages,” said Wilcox, adding that it was not immediately known what led up to the morning shooting. (Read more)

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