New York man shot dead in front of his wife after he flicked cigarette butt towards three men by mistake
THE BRONX, NEW YORK: Police have revealed how a man was shot dead in the Bronx in front of his wife after he inadvertently flicked a cigarette butt at a group of strangers. 36-year-old Curtin Holley got involved in an argument with the three men and was shot in the stomach around 8.45 pm on August 8, Saturday near his home on East 165th Street and Prospect Avenue.
"He flicked a cigarette," a police source reportedly told the New York Post. "It just happened to be in the direction of three individuals. He didn’t mean to do it." Holley had been walking along the street with his wife when the verbal confrontation took place. The altercation quickly turned violent as one of the men pulled out a gun and opened fire at Holley.
Holly was found unresponsive and unconscious when paramedics responded to the scene. Witnesses recalled how he lay on the pavement with a gunshot wound to the abdomen. EMTs rushed him to Lincoln Hospital, where he was pronounced dead later that night. Police are yet to make arrests in relation to Holley's murder, and the shooter is yet to be identified.
Speaking to the New York Daily News, neighbors of Holley at his previous home in Harlem revealed that the 36-year-old was ousted from the residence in July this year after he allegedly broke a window on the first floor of the city-run temporary housing apartment. Neighbor Philip Farrice, 67, claimed Holley had assaulted him and robbed him during his stay at the shelter. "I guess I don’t have to look over my shoulder," Farrice told the paper. "It’s sad though."
However, other neighbors remembered Holley as a kind man. "Every time I’d see him he was on the elevator with his wife and we would talk," 55-year-old Donna Prophete told the Daily News. "He’s a nice guy though. He was very friendly."
Aside from Holley, two other men were killed and several injured in a series of shootings that ravaged New York City over the weekend. 23-year-old Madgey Saleh became the victim of a drive-by shooting on 40th Avenue near the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City on Sunday, August 9, just hours after Holley was pronounced dead. He, too, was shot in the abdomen and later died at Cornell Hospital. Authorities said Saleh was gunned down outside a deli by an unknown suspect who fired a barrage of shots from a moving car.
An hour later, around 4.30 am, 25-year-old Johnathan Distant was shot and killed on 183 street in Brookville, Queens. Police said Distant was shot in the lower back and later pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital. That said, authorities have not made arrests in any of the shootings yet. More than 50 people were injured in at least 38 shootings over the past week, according to the New York Post. By comparison, there were 16 shootings reported during the same period last year.
There are multiple reports of escalating gun violence in the Big Apple, with the number of reported shootings this year already exceeding the count recorded in the whole of last year, per the New York Post.