3 Dead, 1 Wounded When Shooter Opens Fire on Parked Car in New York: Police

Three people are dead and one person is critically injured following a shooting on a Long Island street, police said.

Police say the shooter walked up and fired 16 rounds into a parked Chevy Trailblazer just before midnight on Wednesday on Davidson Street and Troy Avenue in Wyandanch, according to Suffolk County police. The suspect ran off after the shooting.

William Madrey, 25, Stephanie Almedina Rivera, 23, and Ciara Smith, 23, were all fatally shot. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

Another woman who was standing outside the vehicle was critically injured and is being treated at a nearby hospital. She is expected to survive, police say.

Police say the shooter ran off after killing the trio. No arrests have been made. Police say Madrey was an admitted gang member, but they did not immediately identify the gang. Homicide detectives are trying to determine if Madrey's history played a role in the killings.

Henry James, a neighbor who lives down the street from the shooting and heard the gunfire, said it sounded like about 16 shots.

"It's like the Wild West here," James said. "It's just Wyandanch."

Relatives of Almedina sobbed and hugged near the scene after the shooting. They told Newsday the woman was trying to pull her life together after a rough patch and was studying to be a health care aide.

"Why would somebody do this to such a sweet person," her uncle, Thomas Rivera, told the newspaper.

"She used to babysit my son all the time," said Almedina's older sister, Alisha Rivera. "She used to take him shopping, for ice cream. She was the best aunt."

Neighbor Shafonski Burnette said she came to the scene after hearing rumblings that one of the victims was her friend's daughter.

"It's heartbreaking," the 53-year-old woman said as she stood at the yellow crime scene tape that cordoned off the block. "I've lived here a long time. I'm friends with her mother. They live right around the block."

Brunette said the shooting brought back bad memories. Her 14-year-old niece had been killed in a drive-by shooting on the same block a few years ago.

"Now they're shooting," she said. "I can't deal with it."

Virginia Dawson-Taylor, 67, works with the Wyandanch-based Neighborhood Watch group. She says there has been drug activity at the house where the car with the victims was parked.

Another neighbor said "the house has been nothing but trouble" since the current residents moved in two years ago.

Dawson-Taylor, though, said the overall crime problems in the community have gone on for years.

"Nothing's been done about it," she said. "We have people afraid to leave their homes, afraid to go to the store."

A community watch meeting was scheduled for Thursday night. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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