By: Rusty Brooks
New York City rang in the New Year with a triple shooting at a seedy Queens hotel, and the mayor has indicated after a flood of complaints from locals, he wants the Umbrella Hotel shut down.
The shooting took place at around 1:10 a.m. outside the Umbrella Hotel, a hotel known for being a hotbed for crime that residents have wanted to shut down for months, Forest Hills Post reported
Two groups of men got into a dispute outside the 124-18 Queens Blvd. hotel and bullets flew, according to police. When police arrived on the scene, they discovered three men shot—two 20-year-olds and a 40-year-old.
One of the 20-year-olds was shot in the body and was taken to NYC Health & Hospitals/Queens where he was pronounced dead, marking the first homicide of 2021.
“I do want that hotel closed,” de Blasio told reporters during a City Hall press briefing of the Umbrella Hotel at Queens Boulevard and 82nd Avenue in Kew Gardens.
De Blasio said he “instructed” his team to “close that hotel immediately” following the “very, very painful report” involving the early Friday
“We’re checking, obviously, all of our legal powers here to make sure what we do is legal and appropriate, but I want it closed,” the mayor said. De Blasio said the hotel “has been a blight on our community and it should not be that going forward.”
“So we’re going to use all the power of the city government to get that closed and stop having the community suffer from what’s happened at that hotel”, the mayor stated.
The hotel was the scene of two shootings over the summer — one of which left the front door bullet-ridden — as well as a sex trafficking crime involving a minor, Forest Hills Post reported.
The hotel was the scene of a child sex trafficking scheme in September in which 30-year-old Jordan Adderley forced a 16-year-old to have sex with strangers for money, which he pocketed, according to a criminal complaint. Adderley, who was arrested on Oct. 1 on slew of charges, allegedly threatened to kill the young teen if she did not comply, Forest Hills Post reported.
The hotel is overrun with degenerate gun toting gang members, who sell sex on prostitution websites. The community is thrilled something is being done.
Council Member Karen Koslowitz and a representative from Assembly Member Daniel Rosenthal’s office, has been calling for action for months.