‘HE WAS AN INNOCENT BYSTANDER’
Cops offer reward for help fi nding shooter who killed handball player in C’ Heights
BY MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
The NYPD is now offering
up to $10,000 for information
related to the broad daylight
shooting at Brooklyn’s Lincoln
Terrace Park that killed
53-year-old Christopher Ross
on Aug. 9.
According to authorities,
Ross was playing on the eastern
handball court in the Crown
Heights park near Buffalo and
East New York Avenues at 5:47
pm when two groups of gunmen
fi red up to nine shots at
each other — including one
stray bullet that struck the hapless
victim in the head, killing
him on the scene.
The killing marked the second
homicide in Lincoln Terrace
Park this summer, after a
27-year-old man was found dead
on the park steps with gunshot
wounds to the head and chest
just before noon on July 7.
Friends at the scene on Aug.
9 said Ross was just an “innocent
bystander.”
“He didn’t get involved in
any of the problems around
here – he was just an innocent
bystander,” a friend, who gave
his name only as Peter, said.
“You leave your house on a Sunday
to go to the park to chill,
with children all around, and
get shot. My children will be
running around here and playing
tennis and everything and
you are not safe here.”
Days after the shooting, parents
at the park’s playground
said they’re not avoiding the
greenspace — but they are taking
extra precautions.
“I probably won’t be coming
by myself but it’s summer and
the kids keep asking to go outside,”
said Shawn, a 36-year-old
Crown Heights resident.
During the gunfi re, Shawn
said, some parents fl ed with
their children while others covered
them for protection until
shots simmered. On Tuesday,
she tried to position herself in
front of her children as they
played at the park.
“It’s sad, very sad,” said
42-year-old Samuel Karamo,
who was at the park Tuesday
with his 6-year-old daughter.
A Crown Heights resident of
COURIER L 6 IFE, AUG. 14–20, 2020 PS
30 years, Samuel said everyone
at the park is on edge since the
two shootings — an unfamiliar
feeling for residents.
“It was beautiful,” he said
of the park. “I don’t know what
happened, now everybody’s
shooting.”
Ross’ killing comes amid a
spike in crime citywide. This
year has seen close to 1,000 people
shot across the city, according
to NYPD data — up 80 percent
year-to-date compared to
last year.
In the 77th Precinct, where
the Lincoln Terrace Park shootouts
occurred, shooting incidents
are up over 133 percent,
according to department data —
up from 15 incidents this time
last year to 35 year-to-date.
Following the uptick in
shootings, anti-violence groups
like Save Our Streets Bed-Stuy
have gone into overdrive organizing
demonstrations and
advocating for additional resources
they say will help cure
gun violence across the fi ve
boroughs.
“We look at violence, especially
gun violence, as a public
health issue and not a criminal
issue,” said Tarver, S.O.S.’s associate
director of community
safety. “We believe that we can
stop the spread of violence just
like you can stop the spread of a
disease, which means vaccinating
or taking away the risk factors
by changing behaviors and
giving people resources.”
In spite of a particularly violent
summer, some residents
say they still feel safe at their local
park.
“These things do happen but
it’s not something I expect, especially
in a playground,” said
a 65-year-old East Flatbush resident
who withheld her name.
The police, she said, give her a
sense of security.
The crime scene where a 53-year-old man was shot to death in Lincoln
Terrace Park in Crown Heights on Aug. 9. Photo by Todd Maisel
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