Mother Inconsolable After Son Is Shot Dead In Mount Vernon
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A mother was searching frantically for answers Tuesday night, after her son was found shot to death in a parking lot on Mount Vernon.
The shooting happened around 3:45 p.m. at Lincoln and Sheridan avenues in the Westchester County municipality, police said.
Information about the victim was unclear Tuesday night.
CBS 2 was originally told that the victim was a teenage boy and attended Mount Vernon High School, but the same sources later said the victim was actually a 26-year-old man from the Bronx.
The victim was pronounced dead. A suspect has been taken into custody, police said.
The victim's distraught mother arrived moments after her son's body was put into a Westchester County Medical Examiner's office van.
"My son!" the victim's mother wailed.
A witness told CBS 2 he saw the crime unfold from a fifth-floor window.
"I went to the window and I saw the kid running around outside, and the guy shot him in the leg, and he went back to the garage, then shot and came out back, shot him in the leg again, kid fell down, then he walked over and shot him three times in the head," said witness Will Faehndrich.
Faehndrich said he believes the victim was targeted.
CBS 2 has learned investigators also have surveillance video of the murder.
A source told 1010 WINS the incident was caught the on video. The video reportedly shows the victim pleading for his life, being shot, and then being shot again after he was down on the ground.
CBS 2 has learned investigators are talking to the superintendent of a nearby apartment building, who provided them with the video.
A neighbor, Robin Ramsey, told CBS 2's Lou Young she saw the victim's body.
"I just took my grandchild upstairs and I came back and I witnessed the body," she said. "I think it's crazy. I think it's too many kids losing their lives. I'm not sure whether it's a young adult or a grown man, but it needs to stop. It's enough violence."
Another neighbor, Alfred Anderson, said the shots sounded like pieces of wood coming crashing to the ground.
"Basically what we heard when we came out from our pickup of our kids, we were all in the park just about a block away. We heard three plunks. They sound like wood – you know, like a big pile of wood falling?" he said.
Neighbor Rodger Smith expressed relief at the fact that a suspect was caught so quickly.
"If they didn't; if he was still out on the loose, you know, there's a concern that he may come back and cause more problems, so it is a bit of a comfort that, you know, somebody was arrested," Smith said.
The Mount Vernon City School District released a statement about the shooting, and said, "at this time we do not know" if he was a student there.
"A crisis intervention team will be launched tomorrow morning to assist students who may need help in understanding the news," the statement said. "The team will visit those schools along this route -- Holmes, Traphagen and MVHS."
The victim's identity was not immediately available.
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