What to Know
- Gunfire erupted near a strip mall in the Bronx before 10 a.m. Thursday; a woman and two men were shot and all three of them died
- Police say the men, who were shot in the head, appear to have been the intended targets; the woman may have been a bystander
- Witnesses described running for cover under park benches amid the hail of bullets on what was otherwise a quiet morning in the neighborhood
New clues have emerged in Thursday's triple shooting outside a diner near a Bronx strip mall in broad daylight that left two men and a woman dead.
The NYPD released surveillance video late Thursday night of a "person of interest" sprinting from the Castle Hill shooting scene right after the bullets went flying on Castle Hill around 9:45 a.m. Thursday.
Police say the shooting, which sent bystanders running for cover under park benches on an otherwise quiet morning in the neighborhood, killed 45-year-old Arileida Jimenez, who police believe was a bystander, and 33-year-old Mustafa Tarver and 33-year-old Christopher Alleyne, who may have been targeted.
Tarver was known as Moody to his friends, and Alleyne was called Butta.
"I knew Moody longer than my brothers," said Orie Bynum. "He's that guy. If I ever needed something, he had it. Go somewhere, he's make it happen. Butta was the same way. The coolest person in Castle Hill."
Co-workers were also mourning Jiminez Friday.
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"Let me tell you something, I was crying this morning. Her driver was crying. Everybody was sad," said Efrain Vazquez.
Outside Castle Hill Houses the day after the shooting, candles and flowers were set up as a memorial across the avenue from where the bullets flew.
"Castle Hill has always had a rap because it's public housing and people live on top of one another," said tenant association president Jerri Lamb.
Lamb said the city's neighborhood policing strategy has actually helped lower crime there: "It's working well here, third year together."
Still, it hasn't made the area immune to violence: "This happened," Lamb said.
Authorities say the suspected shooter was last seen wearing dark clothes and running toward Randall Avenue. No possible motive has been discussed, but police say the male victims appear to have been the targets.
Cops ask that anyone who witnessed the chaos or who may recognize the man in the new video to come forward.
