Four Men Dead in Upper West Side Shootings

December 17, 2009, 3:08 pm

By AL BAKER

Updated, 4:36 p.m. | Three men — apparently a grandfather, father and son — were shot to death inside an apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, police officials said on Thursday afternoon. Their killer, the authorities said, then tumbled to his death while making his escape.

As a phalanx of uniformed and plainclothes officers from the 20th Precinct descended on the site, at 492 Amsterdam Avenue, between 83rd and 84th Streets, the details of the deaths were not immediately available. The three victims were apparently killed inside Apartment 3-S, a third-floor walkup apartment at that location, officials said.

The two younger men – both named Carlos Rodriguez – were discovered dead in a bedroom, and the older man was found lying in the bathroom, according to a law enforcement official who requested anonymity because the investigation is open.

A fourth man — who is believed to have been responsible for shooting the three others — was dead in the backyard, officials said. He had apparently fallen while trying to leave the apartment through a back window, the official said. The fourth man “may be responsible for the deaths of other three,” said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

A semi-automatic pistol was discovered at the scene.

In addition to the four dead men, a 49-year-old woman was wounded – possibly grazed by a bullet or hit with the butt of a gun – and was taken to St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital, where she was listed in stable condition.

Anthony Cicalo, 23, was doing roof work at a nearby location when a woman in her 20s ran up to him yelling that several people in her family had been shot, he said.

“Her father, her brother and her mother were shot,” said Mr. Cicalo, who then dialed 911, at about 1:43 p.m., to call for help. (He said the woman who approached him was not wounded.)

The motive for the shooting was uncertain, officials said, though detectives are investigating the possibility it was drug related.

The apartment building where the shooting occurred is embedded amid stores that line the busy stretch of Amsterdam Avenue that is packed with taverns and eateries.

It was 911 calls that initially drew officers to the location, at about 2 p.m.

By 2:45 p.m., “hundreds” of officers were swirling at the location, said Deborah Kujawa, a worker at Darryl’s Boutique, a women’s clothing store at the same address.

Ms. Kujawa said the apartment in question was upstairs, “above us.” But she said she could not shed light on what occurred and said she did not know the people who lived there.

From: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/three-men-fatally-shot-on-upper-west-side-police-say/?hp