4 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 6, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Qns. doc killed in Bronx hospital shooting
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com
Th e lone fatality in Friday’s mass shooting
at Bronx Lebanon Hospital was a
32-year-old doctor from Jamaica who was
a dedicated and caring physician, according
to co-workers and friends.
Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam was the only
victim killed in the June 30 shooting, and
staff called her death a “monumental loss
for us all,” according to Th e New York
Times. Tam, who lived in the Hillcrest
section of Jamaica, usually worked on
the ground-level family medicine clinic
but was fi lling in for a doctor on the
17th fl oor.
On June 30, at about 2:55 p.m. Dr.
Henry Bello entered the 16th fl oor of
the hospital at 173rd Street and Grand
Concourse and shot six people before
shooting himself. According to police,
Bello also tried setting himself on fi re
on the 17th fl oor. When police entered
the hospital, the hospital’s
fi re alarm went off and
they found the shooter
on the fl oor in
a white medical
coat. He was pronounced
dead at
the scene.
Tam was
found dead by
police; she had
been shot with an
AM-15 that Bello
purchased from
upstate New York a
few weeks earlier.
She had a reputation
for being a caring physician
who wanted to work with the most
vulnerable populations, according to Th e
New York Times article. Dr. Iyad Baker,
Tam’s program director during her residency,
said he would get calls from
patients complimenting Tam.
“She was
never above
tucking her
patients in at
night,” Dr. Baker
told Th e Times.
“She would come
in even when her shift
is over. She’d ask the
human thing, just what a
good person would do: Can I get
you a glass of water? Would you like me
to get you a magazine? Th ings that are not
very common to do in the fi eld.”
Tam lived in a two-story house with her
parents, who immigrated to the U.S. from
China, and her sister. She graduated from
Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine
in 2013 and worked at a hospital in New
Jersey before coming to the Bronx.
Dr. Naghma Burney, who was a mentor
to Tam, said she spent one month last
year shadowing her even though she had
the month off .
“What an end to a beautiful life,” Dr.
Burney told Th e Times. “She could have
helped so many people out. She could
have added so much to the community.”
Bello, 45, was a former employee at Bronx
Lebanon Hospital. He left in 2015 aft er he
was accused of sexual harassment by a
coworker. Bello, who lived in California for
15 years, struggled with homelessness and
lived in transitional housing on the Lower
East Side in 2014. Bowery Mission Men’s
Center specifi cally helped formerly homeless
men with drug addictions.
A GoFundMe page has been set up by a
doctor to help Tam’s family pay for funeral
expenses.
Free rain
barrels are
available
in Fresh
Meadows
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Fresh Meadows residents can collect
a free rain barrel at an event
next weekend.
On July 9, residents can head
to the Cunningham Park parking
lot, located at Union Turnpike and
196th Place, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
to pick up a barrel.
According to NYC Department of
Environmental Protection (DEP),
the 60-gallon rain barrels are easy
to install and connect directly to
a property owner’s downspout to
capture and store the stormwater
that falls on the rooft op. Th e water
collected in the rain barrel can then
be used to water lawns and gardens
or for other outdoor chores.
The event is sponsored by
state Senator Leroy Comrie,
Assemblyman David Weprin and
Councilman Barry Grodenchik and
is open to residents within each
representative’s district. Interested
parties are asked to call Comrie
(718-765-6359) Weprin (718-454-
3027) or Grodenchik’s offi ce (718-
468-0137) to reserve their rain barrel.
One barrel per household.
Identifi cation may be requested
upon pick-up. Reserved barrels
should be collected between
8:30 and 9:30 a.m. Th e event will
become fi rst-come, fi rst-served
aft er 9:30 a.m.
Community board pens letter to
city on stalled Willets Point project
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
A long-stalled $3 billion Flushing development
plan has a local community board
frustrated with the city, and they’re not just
looking for apologies.
Community Board 7 penned an
impassioned letter to NYC Economic
Development Corporation (NYCEDC)
President James Patchett and Borough
President Melinda Katz in the wake of a
recent Willets Point development committee
meeting where members were dismayed
to discover both NYCEDC and the
mayor’s offi ce neglected to send a representative.
According to the board, both groups
conceded to send reps to all of the board’s
quarterly meetings regarding the development
as part of the board’s agreement to
approve the plans in 2013.
The long-proposed Willets West development
was again brought to a halt after
the New York State Court of Appeals
announced on June 6 that the first phase
of the proposal, labeled “Willets West,”
by the Queens Development Group LLC
(QDG) would not be able to move forward
without approval from state legislature.
The two-phase development
proposed by QDG, a joint venture
between Sterling Equities and Related
Companies, includes plans for a shopping
mall, public school and affordable
housing in the area where Shea Stadium
once stood.
Th e June 27 letter, signed by board chairman
Eugene Kelty and fi rst vice chair
Chuck Apelian, said the committee did not
expect “defi nitive answers” on the project
due to the newness of the court decision,
but rather “clarity and answers to many
objective questions.”
During the project’s land use review in
2008, the board received feedback from
over 500 people in opposition to the rezoning
and land acquisition necessary to make
the project happen. At that time, the board
writes, “the city was our best friends.”
“We approved Willets Point because we
believed in the project and the administration,
but we did not expect to be abandoned,”
the letter continues. “Shame on
EDC and shame on the mayor’s offi ce.”
In a previous statement, the NYCEDC
said that the agency was invited to the
meeting one day before it was held.
According to Apelian, the city agency
contacted him directly four days before
the meeting to inform him they would not
attend. Th e mayor’s offi ce contacted him
three days before.
“EDC simply arms their team with the
pleasantries and spins of ‘We’ll get back
to you,’” the letter said. “Th is must end
immediately, and we do not want apologies
or a politically driven response to this
letter.”
Photo courtesy of Facebook
Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam was
killed when a former
doctor entered Bronx
Lebanon Hospital
with a rifl e and shot
six people.
Photo courtesy of NYCEDC
