By Connor Adams Sheets
A shooting early Saturday morning left a 20-year-old South Jamaica woman dead near the South Jamaica Houses public housing complex just blocks from her home in a neighborhood residents described as drug-infested, according to police.
Police responded at about 3:24 a.m. Saturday to a 911 call reporting a woman shot and arrived at 107-48 160th St. to find Michilene Digirolomo with a gunshot wound to her torso, police said.
She was taken by emergency responders to Jamaica Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival, according to police. No suspects had been identified and no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting as of Tuesday afternoon, and police said the investigation was ongoing.
The shooting occurred after Digirolomo, who lived near 156th Street and 107th Avenue, got into an altercation with a female acquaintance near the intersection of 160th Street and 108th Avenue, according to the New York Post. The female acquaintance left the location, but a man approached Digirolomo and shot her once in the chest, police told the Post.
A maroon car with brush markings and white, powdery residue from a police fingerprint search sat directly in front of the door to 107-48 160th St., the medium-sized project building in front of which the shooting took place.
Area residents said Saturday afternoon that the neighborhood around the South Jamaica Houses complex has always been dangerous and that gun and drug violence plague streets throughout the surrounding area.
“Do I think it’s a good neighborhood? No,” a man said as he unlocked the door to his house across from 107-48 160th St. “I would say it’s rough.”
A woman hanging out on the corner of 160th Street and 108th Avenue Saturday afternoon said the neighborhood is not safe at night.
“This is a drug area. This is a red zone, it’s always been like that,” she said. “I’m not surprised at all about this. Someone got shot in broad daylight like two weeks ago, two blocks up there.”
The slang term “red zone” refers to an area that is dominated by the Bloods street gang.
Yvonne, a fellow resident of Digirolomo’s at 107-48th 160th St., said that though she did not know the woman, she was still saddened by the news of her death.
“I just heard somebody got shot,” she said. “It’s not a quiet neighborhood. There’s always somebody getting shot. My nephew got killed over here. Kids are crazy.”
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
