Bronx woman Juana Perdomo Soriano shot to death running for cover inside bodega
NEW YORK -- An innocent woman is dead after she was shot Monday in front of a bodega in the Bronx.
Police said Juana Esperanza Soriano De-Perdomo was struck when two groups started firing at each other.
It's the latest incident of New York City bystanders becoming victims of gun violence. This time, a 61-year-old woman was the unintended target.
"I felt bad, bad," bodega manager Adel Nasser told CBS2's Elijah Westbrook.
Nasser is one of the managers at the bodega on East 188th Street near the Grand Concourse. Instead of opening up shop at 6 a.m. Tuesday to customers on their way to work, he spent the first 15 minutes of his shift cleaning up blood.
"I feel bad for this woman. This New York City is too much now crazy," he added.
He said he saw the woman walking down the street when gunshots rang out. She tried to run inside the store but was shot in the back by one of those bullets.
"EMS removed our victim to St. Barnabas hospital, where, unfortunately, she was pronounced deceased," said NYPD Chief Eric Fernandez. "A preliminary investigation reveals that there are two groups of men having a dispute on the south side of 188th Street between Creston and the Grand Concourse."
The victim's family told CBS2's Kevin Rincon she came to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic some three decades ago. She lived in the Bronx that entire time. Jose Guzman called the family a model of the immigrant story. The victim is survived by her two sons and three grandchildren.
The family is now among the many New Yorkers calling for an end to gun violence.
Others couldn't seem to wrap their heads around the devastating incident.
"I think it's terrible on a few fronts. You've got this poor woman's family, and they're going to be telling her family that she isn't with us any longer. You have this store owner who now has to clean this up," one person said.
NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell called it another act of senseless violence and said additional officers will be out on the streets in an effort to find those responsible.
Chaplain Robert Rice, the department's community affairs liaison, said the community needs to speak up and more needs to be done to address the underlying problems.
"We gotta find a way to get these guns off the street," Rice said.
A vigil was held Tuesday night at the site of the shooting. As CBS2's Ali Bauman reports, her two sons spoke between sobs about the senselessness of gun violence.
"You just took a grandmother, a mother, and she's my mother," said Victor Perdomo Soriano. "She went from work to do her hair, and that's it. She went to the store and got killed like that?"
"She was a woman that care not only for the family but also a community woman," Bishop P. Rodriguez said.
Her death marks the second person killed by a stray bullet in New York City in five days. Police have not made any arrests in either case.
"We beseech everyone that knows anything, please come out and speak to NYPD," Rodriguez said.
Perdomo De-Soriano's sons lament because of a single bullet, she will not be here to watch her three grandchildren grow.
"Something needs to change," Eric Perdomo Soriano said.
"It has to. It has to," Victor Perdomo Soriano said.
"It could be any of you," Eric Perdomo Soriano said.
"Anybody who you love, it will happen because I never thought that this would happen to my mother," Victor Perdomo Soriano said.
The family is making funeral arrangements in the Dominican Republic.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.