A suspect wanted for shooting and wounding a security guard for a Manhattan supportive housing nonprofit was a frequent visitor angry he had been barred from the facility for breaking rules, sources said Wednesday.
The suspected shooter would often hang around Breaking Ground’s Prince George facility on E. 28th St. in NoMad, just a few blocks from Madison Square Park, and knew several tenants there, sources said.
He would ask tenants if he could crash in their apartments, even though facility rules forbade him from staying overnight, one tenant said.
“He used to stay with me,” said the tenant, who wished not to be named. “He broke up with his girl and I let him stay with me because he was in the street.”
The suspect was restricted as a guest last June, meaning he was supposed to no longer be allowed to visit the building. Surveillance video provided to the NYPD by Breaking Ground helped police identify the suspect, whose name has not been released by authorities.
“He was restricted because he would jump around from apartment to apartment,” the tenant said. “If you visit another apartment, you’re supposed to go downstairs and register with the desk. He wasn’t doing that.”
The suspect’s restricted status led to an ongoing beef with the 49-year-old security guard he is now accused of shooting, sources said.
At about 12:30 p.m. Monday, the guard had stepped out to get lunch and was coming out of a Whole Foods down the block from the Prince George when he was shot.
The gunman, one witness said, opened fire “in broad daylight in front of 70 people.”
Medics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital, where he is still recovering.
“Right now we don’t know much of his prognosis,” the victim’s step-sister, who asked not to be named, said Tuesday. “[Doctors] don’t have much to say. They’re just working on him.”
The Prince George on E. 28th St. in NoMad, Manhattan. (Google)
Police sources said the security guard and restricted-access guest had argued in the days leading up to the shooting.
The victim’s step-sister said he would avoid any sort of conflict.
“He’s not the type of person who argue with people,” she said. “Even if you try to force him, he would just brush it aside. He never try to start nothing with people. If you try to start something with him, the best you get out of him is like, ‘Nah, man, it’s not necessary.’”
“He’s very friendly, very helping,” she added. “That’s his nature since he was young. That’s just how he was. He still is that way.”
A spokeswoman for Breaking Ground, a nonprofit that builds and operates supportive housing at locations throughout the city, confirmed Tuesday night that the suspected shooter was never a tenant.
The Prince George — which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places — provides supportive housing to the formerly homeless.
The gunman remains on the loose.
“He’s not restricted anymore, because he shot someone,” the tenant told The News Tuesday evening. “The detectives were up in my apartment this morning. I gave them the whole spiel.”
“Breaking Ground is deeply saddened by the incident involving one of our security guards,” Miranda Hall, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit organization, said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with them and their loved ones, and the safety of our tenants, staff and community is our top priority.”