Limose Dort, Mother Of 4, Shot Dead In Brooklyn: 'A Courageous And Resilient Person Who Loved Her Children'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A mother of four may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was killed in a hail of gunfire.
The gunman is still on the loose.
As CBS2's Thalia Perez reports, detectives scoured St. John's Place in Brooklyn Friday morning, speaking with neighbors and trying to piece together the tragic shooting that took the life of Limose Dort Thursday.
"She was a courageous and resilient person who loved her children," said her son Janse Joseph.
Joseph told Perez his mother was not the intended target.
The 54-year-old mother of four was gunned down steps from home. Police say it happened around 8:30 p.m. outside 1523 St. John's Place. Joseph says his mother was headed home from her job, where she works as a home health aide.
"I head all of the shots. It had to be five or six shots. Maybe a little more. It was just, like, pow pow pow," said neighbor Keisha Gonzalez.
Watch Thalia Perez's report --
Joseph say his mother was shot twice in the stomach, and a second victim, 30, was shot in the arm. He is expected to survive.
Some of the bullets pierced a car, and shattered its back window.
Joseph told Perez he and his mom moved from Haiti to the U.S. for a better life four years ago. He's the youngest of four siblings.
"There's nothing I can say to calm them down. It's pretty sad, I had to give them this news," Joseph said.
A GoFundMe has been established to help the family cover funeral expenses.
Joseph met with a lawyer Friday to apply for emergency visas for family members back in Haiti to attend their mother's funeral. Neighbors say tragic shootings like this are an all-too-frequent occurrence lately.
"This is, like, crazy out here. You have to be careful," Gonzalez said.
Police say this shooting was one of seven on Thursday all around New York City, and so far no arrests have been made.
Police say citywide so far this year there have been more than 900 shootings.
A group of Brooklyn pastors fed up with the rising gun violence spent Friday night driving from the scene of one shooting to another to pray.
"We're here because we're tired of having funerals at our churches," said Bishop Albert Jamison, with United Clery Commission.
As CBS2's Ali Bauman reports, they started where eight people were shot in Bedford-Stuyvesant earlier this week when two gunmen opened fire in a crowd of hundreds and ended in Crown Heights, where Dort was killed.
"The Black, Hispanic community is under siege now," said Archbishop Eric Figueroa, with the United Clery Commission.
"What is going to deter crime, it's not just prayer. It's not just us coming out, but police presence," said Bishop Gerald Seabrooks, with the United Clery Commission.
"Police that respect us, police that we have a relationship with, that's what we want in our community," community activist Tony Herbert said.
The NYPD told CBS2 its commanders are flexible in their deployment of officers to hot spots of crime and strategically use overtime to increase police presence at critical times.
A City Hall spokesman told CBS2 in part, "Since the mayor announced the Safe Summer NYC plan, murders have declined 26%, and shootings declined 35% last month."
Meanwhile, anyone with information about the Crown Heights shooting is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-8477 or for Spanish, 1-888-577-4782. Tips can also be sent to the NYPDTips Twitter account or submitted online at NYPDCrimeStoppers.com.
Thalia Perez contributed to this report.
