By James DeWeese
Oscar Ivan Orosco, a Colombian immigrant and the devoted father of two boys from a previous marriage, was pronounced dead at the scene with a gunshot wound to the temple after the gunfire erupted about 8:30 p.m., police said.
Orosco’s former girlfriend, Zoraida D’Alessandro, 32, was shot in the hand, police said, and taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she was admitted in stable condition. As of Tuesday, she was still in the hospital, a spokesman said.
D’Alessandro’s 7-year-old daughter Sofia, who was not in the house when the shootings occurred, was whisked away from the murder scene by her father, according to a neighbor.
D’Alessandro’s friend, John Ramirez, 35, of Woodside was shot in the chest. He was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center, where he was admitted in critical condition. As of Tuesday, he was still in the intensive care unit, a spokesman said.
Her relationship with Ramirez was not known, but neighbors said Orosco had not been seen around the neighborhood for about two months. Until recently, Orosco, who worked at a restaurant and a supermarket deli in Jackson Heights, and D’Alessandro had shared two apartments in the relatively quiet neighborhood where they had lived for about two years, the neighbors said.
About 8:30 p.m., police received a 911 call from D’Alessandro’s home, the second-floor apartment in a two-story brick house at 31-20 86th St.
Upon arriving at the scene, they discovered all three victims in the hall at the top of the stairs that lead to the apartment from a side alley, a police officer said. A Police Department spokesman said the outside door on the alley showed signs of forced entry.
“The guy forced his way into the apartment,” he said. “The side door looks like it’s dented.”
Officers also recovered a silver-colored .38-caliber gun, 115th Precinct Commander Capt. Douglas Rolston said.
Rolston said police were continuing to investigate, but “at this point we’re not looking for anyone else.”
D’Alessandro’s 15-year-old neighbor, Robert Vargas, said he saw her daughter playing in the street just a few hours before hearing three gunshots from the two-story brick house.
“You know when they fix the houses and they throw stuff off the roof, I thought it was that,” Robert said.
Miriam Martinez, who lives nearby and said she frequently saw D’Alessandro on the street, said D’Alessandro called Sofia’s father to pick her up after the shooting occurred.
Another neighbor, who would give only his first name, Pepe, said Sofia “seemed to know something was wrong.” When she saw her father, “she just broke down,” he said.
Martinez said Orosco and D’Alessandro, whom she described as a “very good person” who worked hard for her daughter,” had been arguing earlier in the day.
Orosco, himself the father of 11-year-old and 6-year-old boys who live in Florida with his estranged wife, was getting ready for a trip south to attend his elder son’s communion, said his mother-in-law Olga Payan.
Payan, who came to the scene after “hearing through the grapevine” about the shooting, said she had seen Orosco the day before.
“As always, he was normal,” Payan said in Spanish. “Just yesterday he said he was going to head for (Florida).”
Payan, who was talking with her daughter, Orosco’s estranged wife, Jenny Payan Orosco, 30, on a cell phone when she arrived at the scene, said the couple had been separated for about three years.
Payan said Orosco called his children nearly every day.
“They always said, “Hi, Oscar Ivan Orosco,’” Payan said. “They never called him ‘Papa.’”
Martinez said Orosco and D’Alessandro had lived in the neighborhood for about two years — first in a basement apartment two doors down and then as of five months ago in the apartment where the shooting occurred.
Few of the onlookers and neighbors who gathered after the shooting said they knew Orosco or D’Alessandro.
“I’ve lived here 14 years and nothing (like this) has ever happened,” said Marina Roman. “but recently a lot of people have come and gone, a lot of new people.”
Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
