By: Daniella Doria
Bullets flew in Manhattan’s trendy Chelsea neighborhood as multiple people were wounded and killed.
One of those injured was a female, off-duty, assistant deputy warden at Rikers Island, police sources said to The New York Post. This is not a shock for lost New Yorkers as The NY York Post reports that while murders and shootings are down in the city, crime overall is up 29.1% through November 6, according to NYPD data. Felony assaults, rapes and robberies have all risen by double digits.
The city Department of Corrections higher-up was hurt when deadly shots flew outside the Marlborough Art Gallery at the Chelsea Arts Tower at 545 W. 25th St. just after 10:15 p.m. Saturday, police said.
Police said to The New York Post reporters that they found three people, including Assistant Deputy Warden Janae Gregg, with gunshot wounds at the scene, which was also near the ritzy Lavan 541 events venue. A pool of blood — and a shattered pair of Louis Vuitton glasses — remained at the site by midday Sunday.
Another incident happened around 3:30 a.m. Sunday, when a 32-year-old man was shot outside 101 W. 23rd St. Sources said the victim, identified by sources as Brandon Grant, was paroled last year in a Bronx murder case and was being sought on a warrant when he was shot. He is no relation to the dead victim in the earlier shooting, police sources said.
Records show Brandon Grant served more than seven years behind bars on a second-degree murder and assault conviction and was paroled Dec. 13, 2021. He also has a series of other prior busts, including on rape charges. Details on the outstanding arrest warrant against him were not immediately available.
According to The New York Post, police have not determined a motive for the shooting.
“Unknown male walks up to him and shoots him in the chest,” a police source told The New York Post.
Alex Waleed, who works at a neighborhood smoke shop near the scene of the shooting, said the victim ran down the street after he was shot until he finally collapsed outside a local Dunkin’ Donuts.
“What the f–k?” Waleed said. “I’ve been in Chelsea for nine years, and it’s never been like this. It’s insane. I’m fed up with this s–t. It’s getting too nuts out here.”
The two Chelsea shootings do not appear to be connected, sources said.
The accused serial sex offender charged with attacking three women in Manhattan before being busted was hiding in plain sight during the police manhunt for him, locals told The New York Post on Monday.
Carl Phanor, 29, was “a fixture in [the] neighborhood” on Manhattan’s West Side for months, even after cops learned he allegedly sexually molested a jogger near Hudson River Park in March and were searching for him, an area couple told The New York Post.
On Oct. 6, Phanor sexually assaulted and robbed another woman, then raped a tourist from Illinois on Nov. 3 — hours before he was finally busted, cops said.
Cops arrested him as he was about to board a bus at the Port Authority terminal.
Police said they believe Phanor fled the city after the first attack. But Elaine and David suggested that the suspect was hanging around their neighborhood enough afterward that he could have been caught.
This is just more evidence that violent crime is hitting even the nicest of New York City neighborhoods at an increasingly alarming rate.