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A 33-year-old man is dead after being gunned down in broad daylight on the Upper West Side Thursday afternoon, police said.
The shooting happened just before 5 p.m. on April 9 in front of 53 West 104th Street near Manhattan Avenue, directly across from the NYCHA Frederick Douglass Houses, according to the NYPD.
Officers from the 24th Precinct and the NYPD’s Public Service Area 6 responded to a 911 call and found Rashaun Hopkins suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest. He was rushed to Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital in a police vehicle and pronounced dead.
Hopkins, who lived on Amsterdam Avenue, was a resident of the Frederick Douglass Houses complex, living in a building a few blocks from where he was killed, police said.
The NYPD said they are searching for a suspect described as a male with a dark complexion who was wearing all black and fled the scene on a moped, heading west on West 104th Street. No arrests have been made and police are still investigating a possible motive.
Hopkins’ death marks the first homicide of the year in the 24th Precinct, which covers Manhattan Valley and a portion of Riverside Park. There had been just one other shooting in the precinct this year through April 5, according to NYPD data.
Citywide, shootings at public housing developments are down more than 34% so far this year, though overall gun violence is up slightly compared to the same period in 2025.
Anyone with relevant information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by sending a direct message to @NYPDTips on Twitter.
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