BRONX, New York — It was a violent night in the Bronx on Thursday, where two men were fatally shot in separate incidents just about an hour apart.<\/p>\n
The first happened around 9:30 p.m. at a deli in the Williamsbridge section.<\/p>\n
Police say a dispute began inside the Bronxwood Avenue bodega and spilled outside. The victim, 22-year-old Ricardo Bygrave, was shot in the head and pronounced dead<\/a> at Jacobi Hospital.<\/p>\n Police were back on Bronxwood Avenue Friday morning looking for additional surveillance video as they investigate this killing.<\/p>\n The homicide took place just hours after the NYPD released its quarterly crime statistics, which reflected a positive trend for the borough.<\/p>\n “The Bronx leads the city in overall major crime declines with a 9.4% decrease,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.<\/p>\n But the most serious of the major crimes, murder, remains stubbornly steady in the Bronx, 21 this year compared to 19 through the same period last year.<\/p>\n Just one hour after the Williamsbridge shooting, another unrelated instance of gun violence occurred. A dispute between neighbors escalated with 21-year-old Justin Chatfield shot in the torso at 30 Richman Plaza in Morris Heights. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital and pronounced dead.<\/p>\n The victim’s neighbor, 76-year-old Gilbert Smalls was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the police commissioner touting the strategies that the NYPD has been employing to try and drive numbers down.<\/p>\n “We identified the communities historically plagued by violent crime and deployed an unprecedented number of cops to our violence reduction zones,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. “These are the places that have been hardest hit, and now we are seeing tremendous progress.”<\/p>\n The new crime statistics also show that 40% of the city’s murders so far this year have taken place in the Bronx.<\/p>\n ———-<\/p>\n * More Bronx news<\/a><\/p>\n * Send us a news tip<\/a><\/p>\n * Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts<\/a> <\/p>\n * Download our connected TV app<\/a> <\/p>\n
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