Four Stabbed in Bronx Playground

Twenty-three people have been shot and stabbed in city parks and playgrounds this Summer so far including four last evening. (Photo: Geoffrey Croft/NYC Park Advocates)

Bronx

Violence erupted Saturday evening when four people - three females, ages 39, 19, 18 and one male, 17 were stabbed in a Bronx Playground as a result of a dispute NYC Park Advocates has learned.

According to the police the 18-year-old was stabbed in the torso and is in serious but stable condition, and 39-year-old was stabbed in the back, the 19-year-old in the stomach and the 17-year-old male in the right arm.

The incident occurred just before 10:00pm in Half-Nelson Playground on Nelson Avenue bet. Featherbed La and W. 174th St.

Three victims were transported to St. Barnabas and one to Lincoln Hospital. All are in stable condition according to the police.

No other information is available at this time.

It has been an especially violent Summer this year in the city's parks and playgrounds with 23 people being shot and stabbed.

According to figures complied by NYC Park Advocates since July alone 17 people have been shot, resulting in 4 deaths and six people were stabbed, one fatally.

- Geoffrey Croft

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Four Injured In Stabbing At Bronx Playground

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Another Shooting- Man, 22 Killed After Fight On Bronx Playground Basketball Court

Half-Nelson Playground basketball court in the Bronx where a a dispute occurred that led to a shooting last night. A 22-year-old man was gunned down by a group of armed men, police said. Tashawn Murray, of Morris Heights, got into an altercation with several men at the courts on Nelson Avenue. The men walked away from the fight — only to return about 9 p.m. with guns. Murray ran about 200 yards, but the shooters hit him twice in the arm and once in the back, cops said according to DNAInfo. (Photo: Chelsia Marcius/DNAinfo)

An hour earlier a 24-year-old was shot in the left eye in Brooklyn, capping off a violent week in parks.

Neither the Bronx nor Brooklyn have a single dedicated Park Enforcement Patrol officer available for patrol in the evening for more than 11, 000 acres of parkland combined.

Bronx

A war of words at a Morris Heights basketball court turned deadly Thursday when a 22-year-old man was gunned down by a group of armed men, police said, according to DNAinfo.

Tashawn Murray, of Morris Heights, got into a beef with several men at the courts at Half-Nelson Playground on Nelson Avenue.

The men walked away from the fight — only to return about 9 p.m. packing guns, police said. Murray ran about 200 yards, but the shooters blasted him twice in the arm and once in the back, cops said.

Paramedics rushed to the scene and found a bloodied Murray in front of 1600 Nelson Avenue. He was taken Murray to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he died, police said.

Henry Ramirez, 42, who lives on the block, said he heard the gunfire from his window.

"The poor guy was just playing basketball," Ramirez, who has lived in the building for two years, said.

Sadie Harkless, Murray's grandmother, visited a makeshift memorial set up in front of Murray's home at West Tremont Avenue.

"My relationship with him was very close," said Harkless, 61, adding that she raised Murray and treated him like a son. "That's my baby."

Tashawn Murray, 22, was shot and killed after a fight on a basketball court in Morris Heights on July 13, 2012. (Facebook via DNAinfo)

Friends gathered at the memorial — eight-inch votive candles placed in a cardboard box — to remember Murray, who they said was a recent graduate of Jane Addams Academic Success.

"Is this it? Is this all he gets?" said Starasia Dortch, 18, the first friend to arrive at the memorial. "He was a good boy. There's no one friendlier.

"I don't know what would make anyone to this to Tashawn," she added.

Police have not made an arrest, and the investigation is ongoing.

William Mayo, 52, who claimed to know Murray since he was a boy, said the young man got mixed up with the wrong crowd a few years ago.

"He was very well loved, but it wasn't a big surprise," he said, referring to the shooting. "He got involved in street life. When you do that, things happen."

Read More:

Man Killed After Fight on Bronx Basketball Court

DNAinfo - July 13, 2012 - By Chelsia Rose Marcius, Paul DeBenedetto

Man Shot In Eye In Evergreen Playground Basketball Court

A Walk In The Park - July 13, 2012 - By Geoffrey Croft