An 18-year-old man was killed and two other people were shot early Sunday during what police officials described as a large, chaotic gathering of cars in the Bronx.
Werling Mendez was shot in the head shortly before 5:45 a.m. on East 233rd Street and taken by private car to BronxCare Health System, where he was pronounced dead, police said. A 22-year-old man was shot in the chest and a 20-year-old woman was shot in the foot while in a car. Both were treated in stable condition at Jacobi Hospital, according to the NYPD.
Officials said the shooting came after armed robberies moments earlier at what one official described as a roving car meetup that stretched for several blocks in an industrial part of Eastchester. Two women, ages 25 and 37, were selling beverages to the crowd when they were robbed of a chain and a wallet, officials said. Both were taken to hospitals in stable condition.
Investigators are reviewing surveillance footage from the scene, according to officials.
The shooter fled and had not been identified as of Monday afternoon, police said. No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The scene appeared to fit the pattern of unsanctioned “car takeovers” that have drawn crowds to New York streets over the past year, often organized through social media. Officials have said the events have grown increasingly destructive.
Mendez’s killing is the second death this month tied to such a gathering. Steven Bodnar, 23, was fatally stabbed during a “Dominican Dyckman Takeover” in Inwood on Aug. 9. That killing prompted the NYPD to flood Upper Manhattan with hundreds of officers the following weekend and to shut down Dyckman Street end to end.
In April, roughly 50 vehicles and more than 100 people blocked a Queens intersection where drivers performed donuts around a ring of fire and people damaged a marked NYPD cruiser. Nearly 500 teenagers descended on a Bronx mall on Presidents Day, leading to 18 arrests.