Transcript: Mayor Eric Adams Holds Briefing with the NYPD

March 31, 2022

Assistant Chief Michael Kemper, Police Department: Good evening. I’m Assistant Chief Michael Kemper. I'm the Commanding Officer of Patrol Borough Brooklyn South. I want to remind you that this information I'm about to give is preliminary and is subject to change as this incident just occurred a short while ago. But once again, I'm standing here before you to brief you on another senseless shooting.

Assistant Chief Kemper: This time, the shooting involving the death of a 12-year-old child. Earlier today at about 7:45 PM, patrol officers from the 67 precinct responded to this area, Linden Boulevard in East 56 Street, after receiving 911 calls of shots fired as well as a shot spotter siren being activated. Upon their arrival, they came upon the vehicle which was parked. It was a dark colored Toyota, and it was occupied by three individuals, a 20-year-old female, a 12-year-old male, and an eight-year-old female.

Assistant Chief Kemper: The 20-year-old female was in the driver's seat. She was shot multiple times to her body. She was removed to Kings County Hospital. She's currently in surgery and she's expected to survive. In the passenger seat was a 12-year-old male. He was shot multiple times to his body, he was pronounced deceased on scene. In the rear seat, there was an eight-year-old female in the rear portion of the vehicle. She was uninjured. A preliminary investigation reveals that the three pulled over in the car to eat some food when shots were fired that penetrated their vehicle. Investigators right now are following up with numerous 911 callers for more information and are canvassing the area for witnesses and security video.

Assistant Chief Kemper: We are asking for the public's help and assistance. We're actually pleading for the public's help and assistance in helping us solve this case. If anyone has any information in relation to this incident, horrific incident, we urge you to call our Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS. That's 1 800 577 T-I-P-S. I remind everyone that if you call, you can remain anonymous. Questions?

Question: Chief, I have two questions. First of all, is there any indication that anyone in that vehicle was being targeted specifically or were they unintended? And the second question, there was a report of a vehicle that had been involved in the shooting. Is that legitimate or [inaudible]?

Assistant Chief Kemper: I'm going to pass it off to Chief Joe Gulotta. He's the Commanding Officer at Detective Borough Brooklyn South. But before I do, I just want to let everyone here know, as far as motive, the motive is unknown right now. And as far as if that vehicle was targeted, that's what we're trying to determine right now. But I'll pass it off to Chief Joe Gulotta to answer any sort of questions that have an investigative connection.

Deputy Chief  Joseph Gulotta, Police Department: Good evening. In regards to the investigation, we're very early on. I want to make that very clear. As far as what we have and what we're looking for, we have numerous pieces of ballistics on the scene that are going to be processed by crime scene behind us. And we're looking for potentially two vehicles, both black sedans, unknown make and model at this time, one that went down 58 Street, East 58 Street, and one that went down Linden Boulevard. Anyone with information regarding these vehicles, we implore you to call 1 800 577 TIPS. Get that information to us. We're going to need the public's help on this.

Deputy Chief  Gulotta: It's a senseless crime. We have a 12-year-old that was killed, and we're going to take all our resources we have to solve this crime, but we're not going to be able to do it without the public's help. So please, I'm going to ask, two vehicles. We have two black sedans seen fleeing the vehicle. As we get more, we'll get it out to you. We'll get you the make, the models as we get it. But right now what we have is two black sedans.

Question: How many bullets were fired, because it looked like there were multiple gunmen involved here?

Deputy Chief  Gulotta: It's too early on for us to tell you that, to tell that. Right now, as we process the scene, we'll know. But there was numerous shots fired.

Question: [Inaudible]

Deputy Chief  Gulotta: They're all family.

Question: Did they live in this area [inaudible]?

Deputy Chief  Gulotta: They do live in the area. Yes.

Mayor Eric Adams: Listen, this precinct alone, we moved close to 48 guns off these streets, over a hundred guns last year. 12-year-old we lost sitting here in that car, eating. The question I continue to ask, what about the innocent people? What about people that are sitting in their cars and they shot and killed? We hear so much about those who are fighting, but when are we going to start fighting for the innocent people of this city? And I'm going to do that. And this police department is going to do that.

Mayor Adams: We're going to catch this shooter, but as long as we have guns and we're in a revolving door system, we're going to continue to come to crime scenes like this. It's time for it to stop. That's why we are here. We're going to do our job. We need everyone to help us ending this senseless violence.

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