NO NYPD COPS IN SIGHT AFTER MAN STRUCK BY STRAY BULLET

Family of paralyzed Brooklyn shooting victim decries neighborhood lawlessness

By Rachel Green and Vincent Barone

New York Post
August 22, 2020


Outlaws with guns are running rampant in New York City, an in-law to an innocent Brooklyn shooting victim told The Post on Saturday, blaming a lack of cops for his facing a possible lifetime of paralysis.

Sam Metcalfe, 33, was shot in his spine by a stray bullet in Flatbush on Wednesday afternoon while walking with his wife to get toothpaste from a store.

Malcolm Amede, 18, died in the same shooting, which police are investigating as a gang-related, law enforcement sources have told The Post.

The broad-daylight shooting on the corner of Ocean and Woodruff avenues was the third in six days in the area.

Susan Parziale, Metcalfe’s mother-in-law, told The Post that police are no longer making their presence known in the area and “aren’t doing anything” about the violence.

“The reason it happened is because the cops aren’t around. That neighborhood used to be safe,” said Parziale, who doesn’t live in the city.

“It’s not safe now,” she said. “There used to be police all over that neighborhood but now they aren’t doing anything.”

Parziale said Metcalfe’s wife, her daughter Sabrina, is “not well” as the family grapples with his injury. Doctors fear the young husband may never be able to walk again.

“Right now, they don’t know how he is or how his recovery will be,” she added.

Police released surveillance footage from the shooting showing a gunman opening fire from the driver’s seat of a grey BMW.

Graphic phone footage from bystanders that circulated in the aftermath of the shooting shows bystanders rushing to console Metcalfe and Amede as some tried to treat their wounds.

Sabrina’s brother, Joe Parziale, 30, said he didn’t understand why there weren’t any police pictured on the scene in the clip.

“After he was shot, there were all these videos and even minutes later, there were no cops,” Joe Parziale said. “There should have been a cop there in 90 seconds.”

“Prospect Park is a heavily patrolled area,” Joe Parziale said, referencing the park just a block north of the shooting.

“It’s not even a matter of putting more cops on the street,” he said.

“I don’t know if it’s a slow-down in response to the protests, or what it is,” he said.

“If that were a cop that were shot, they would be scrambling choppers.”

NYPD data from earlier this August shows cops have made nearly 10,000 fewer arrests over the last month — a 56 percent drop compared to last year. Arrests are down almost 40 percent for the year.

But gun arrests are only down slightly — by 8.1 percent overall for this year, with 1,899 busts versus 2,066 during the same period last year.

While there have been reports of a police work slowdowns in the wake of local protests around the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, Mayor Bill de Blasio has denied any such actions.

On Friday he attacked the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch for saying the police were helpless against the violence.

“Pat Lynch may want [a slowdown]. But the men and women in the NYPD aren’t doing it,” de Blasio told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Friday.

EDITOR'S NOTE: When my parents and I arrived in America in 1936, our first residence was an apartment within a block of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum.  Occasionally I went to the museum and often went to the nice zoo inside Prospect Park.