Kingsbridge man fatally shot on Fort Independence Street

I walked over to see if he was still breathing. I called for 911. So while I’m on the phone with dispatch, the cops (are) already on their way.”

'MISS GONZALEZ,’ neighbor

Police are looking for a pair of men following the fatal shooting of a 27-year-old Kingsbridge man outside 3470 Fort Independence St. at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 17.

The victim, Jeremy Valencia, was unconscious and unresponsive with gunshot wounds to the chest, police from the 50th Precinct said. EMS arrived and transported him to Montefiore Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

There have yet to been any arrests as the 50th Precinct investigates the incident. It is the first homicide inside the precinct this year.

A neighbor who identified herself as “Miss Gonzalez” told The Riverdale Press she heard the gunshots. Normally she would walk her dogs around 6 a.m., but for whatever reason she did not that morning. She was the first person on the scene, and even took his pulse to see if Valencia was still alive.

“We just heard the shots,” Miss Gonzalez said. “And the kids was like ‘Mom, were those gunshots?’ (and) I’m like ‘no, I don’t think so’ because normally the cars be making a lot of noise over here, you know?”

It wasn’t until she stepped outside and saw Valencia bleeding on the street that she realized the severity of the situation.

“I walked over just to see if he was still breathing,” Miss Gonzalez said. “He did have a pulse at the time. I called for 911. So while I’m on the phone with the dispatch, the cops (are) already on their way.

“Somebody was coming out of the building, I asked them ‘Can you check if he’s still breathing?’ and he’s like ‘Yeah, he has a pulse.’ So by the time the police came, tried to help him, I guess he was like maybe taking his last breath.”

The police started administering CPR on Valencia according to Miss Gonzalez. They rushed him into an ambulance, and took him to the hospital.

Miss Gonzalez has lived in the neighborhood for around two years and describes it as a decent neighborhood, but the incident has left her understandably shaken.

“I can’t even sleep. It’s just crazy. Like I said, you hear gunshots all the time, but to actually see the person,” Miss Gonzalez said.

“It’s like when you hear it, you don’t really think somebody would probably be injured,” Miss Gonzalez’s daughter added. “It’s a possibility but when it comes to actually having to see somebody injured in that way, not being able to move, thinking about if death is coming.

“It’s scary, traumatizing, you don’t know what to think in that moment. Kind of, you’re in shock.”

Police say they are looking for two gunmen.

According to Miss Gonzalez, there is a person that knows what happens but doesn’t want to talk about it due to the area they live in. She also said that surveillance footage most likely caught the gunmen on camera.

According to the New York Daily News, Valencia’s family who live nearby were too distraught to speak. Valencia’s brother, Christopher, told the newspaper, “We’re still processing it.”

Just hours before Valencia’s shooting, another Bronx man was fatally shot at approximately 1:50 a.m in East Harlem within the confines of the 25 Precinct.

The 26-year-old man was shot in the chest on East 116th Street near Third Avenue and pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital.

According to DCPI there have been no arrests yet and the victim’s name has yet to be released.

According to the NYPD, there were 72 shooting incidents in New York City last month. There was a 31.4 percent drop in shooting incidents in April compared to April 2022, with 72 versus 105. Homicides dropped 5.9 percent in April compared to April 2022, with 32 versus 34.