By Connor Adams Sheets
The long Labor Day weekend was one of the most violent periods in recent memory in New York City, with 24 shootings recorded in 24 hours and more than 40 between Saturday morning and Monday night, according to police.
Queens was not spared in the carnage, as seven people were shot in non-fatal incidents in the borough and one Far Rockaway man was stabbed to death on Saturday and Sunday alone. The violence does not seem to be letting up with another man stabbed to death Tuesday morning in Richmond Hill.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the wave of violence “unconscionable” and said the federal government needs to enact tougher gun laws in response to the bloodletting, the New York Post reported.
“We just cannot continue to have these guns in the hands of kids who don’t understand the value of human life,” Bloomberg said.
The weekend of horror kicked off early Saturday morning with the stabbing that left 27-year-old Craig Jackson, of 711 Seagirt Ave. in the Rockaways, dead in front of 571 Central Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, police said. The man had been fighting with an acquaintance over a woman when he was stabbed, the Post reported, and his killer had not been caught as of Tuesday.
The bloodshed continued when a 30-year-old woman was shot in the hand at 205-18 116th Road in Jamaica shortly before midnight that night, according to the Breaking News Network, which reported at 12:12 a.m. that police were looking for a black, late-model, four-door Jeep in connection with the incident.
Then police were mobilized at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday in order to conduct an evidence search and look for a heavyset black man who fled “toward the projects” after shooting three men at 14-10 Beach Channel Drive in Far Rockaway, BNN said.
And at 6 a.m., BNN reported that police were mobilized again in response to the non-fatal shootings of two men at Seagirt Avenue and Beach 26th Street in the Rockaways. Police did not immediately indicate whether the shootings were related to Seagirt Avenue resident Jackson’s death the previous day.
Another Jamaica shooting took place Sunday morning shortly before 9:04 a.m., when BNN reported that a woman had been shot at Sutphin Boulevard and South Road. In the wake of the shooting, police were searching for a silver Lexus last seen driving southbound on South Road, according to BNN.
Police say they also responded at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday to a 911 call about a man who had been stabbed at 134-17 101st Ave. When police arrived, they say they found a 28-year-old Asian man, who they later identified as Nanan Davindra, with a “sustained stab wound to the upper torso region.”
Emergency personnel responded as well and took the victim to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, police said. Carol Singh, 27, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon Tuesday, according to police.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
