Jerod Smith 37 shot and killed front of his apt building on East 126 St in East Harlem
A shooting victim in New York City was assassinated outside the building where he grew up.
The relatives of an East Harlem triple gunshot victim believes he was assassinated outside the apartment building where he grew up.
A 37-year-old father of three who was killed in a triple shooting in East Harlem was shot outside the building where he had resided since boyhood, according to the victim's distraught family.
“He was murdered directly across the street from where he was born and raised,” said Tyesha Smith, 36, homicide victim Jerod Smith's fiancée and mother of two of his children.
“He was a bystander,” Smith stated. “Someone fired down the block, striking him in the torso. It is heinous.”
Jerod Smith was shot in the chest just before 1:15 a.m. Wednesday outside his apartment building on E. 126th St. near Lexington Ave., officials said.
Smith was transported to Harlem Hospital by medics, but he was unable to be rescued.
Two further guys, both 34, were shot in the hip and leg — one in the hip, the other in the leg. Both males sought treatment at surrounding hospitals and allegedly refused to cooperate with officers.
Police were unable to determine Thursday night whether Smith was a bystander or the shooter's intended victim.
Smith's aunt, who requested anonymity, described him as a "phenomenal individual." “This is another another tragedy in our town, as a mother must bury her son as a result of gun violence.”
No one has been arrested in connection with the incident.