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Unidentified man shot in Malba

By Scott Sieber

Officers at the 109th Precinct were unable to confirm a report on the Breaking News Network, which monitors police and fire scanners, that a shooting had occurred. The public information arm of the Police Department said it had no information on the shooting or the victim, whose age, identity and condition had not been revealed as of Tuesday.But one neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said that at around 7 p.m. he was watching TV in his bedroom when he noticed what appeared to be two young Hispanic men and one black man walk past his home on 140th Street and stop in front of a large, overgrown bush at the end of the block near the intersection of 14th Avenue.He grew suspicious of their actions, he said, because the group of young men were walking slowly up the sidewalk on the west side of 140th Street, which has several large portions of pavement missing and is obstructed in part by trees and other foliage. He said it looked as if the group was trying to stay hidden.”If you're walking up the sidewalk here, you're going to go into the street,” he said. “I don't know why they came up here. Nobody ever comes up here.”Two of the men stopped next to the overgrown bush near a neighborhood basketball hoop at the end of the block, while the third man kept watch in the middle of the street, according to the witness.”I thought, 'What the hell are they doing?'” the witness said. “Then the guy in the street turned around, he pulled out a 9mm, and I watched him, 'pow, pow,' two shots, then the two Spanish guys ran down the street laughing.”As the two were running away, the witness said it appeared as if one of the men was carrying a bag under his arm.Dozens of police arrived minutes later and cordoned off several blocks of the neighborhood between 140th Street and 142nd Street, neighbors said.The witness to the shooting said he heard from other neighbors that the shooting victim tried to walk away from the incident and made it two blocks away before collapsing.A Nissan Pathfinder SUV was parked on the block Tuesday with a dent that appeared to be a bullet hole.”The cops said they only fired twice and hit him twice, but there's an SUV up there with a bullet hole, so they're thinking it must have went through him and hit the car,” the witness said.Neighbors said their section of Malba is normally the last place where shootings occur.”This kind of stuff never happens over here,” said the witness. “You can go five blocks down and you'll find $5 million houses over there. It worries me a little bit.”On Tuesday, another neighbor, who refused to give her name, said police cars have been patrolling the neighborhood since the incident, but she said the unusual commotion was not something that frightened her.”I was in France during World War II,” she said. “I've seen worse.”Reach reporter Scott Sieber by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.