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4 Teens Arrested After Fight Sparks Gunfire on UWS Street, Police Say

By Emily Frost | April 18, 2014 4:43pm
 Police arrested four teens for disorderly conduct on West 95th Street and Columbus Avenue. 
Police arrested four teens for disorderly conduct on West 95th Street and Columbus Avenue. 
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Spencer Platt/Getty Images

UPPER WEST SIDE — Two groups of teens faced off last Friday night in a scuffle that ended with a gunshot fired and four teens arrested, police said. 

Two rival groups — one based out of the Frederick Douglass Houses, and the other from Wise Towers — met at the corner of West 95th Street and Columbus Avenue about 11:15 p.m., said police from the 24th Precinct.

They started mixing it up when one of the teens rammed into another with his kick scooter, sending a bullet flying, police said. 

Someone in one of the crews, made up of about 15 people each, let off a shot from a .357 caliber gun, but no one was struck, said 24th Precinct commanding officer Capt. Marlon Larin. Police could not determine who fired the weapon, he said. 

The groups scattered after the gunshot and ran off, but police in the area gave chase, arresting four of the teens involved.

Two 19-year-olds, an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old were arrested, police said. Three were charged with disorderly conduct, while the fourth was picked up on an oustanding warrant.

"They’ll band together and they get brazen," Larin said of the crews, which he said tend to be made up of about 15 teens, some as young as 13 years old. But their allegiances are hard to keep track of, he added.

"One day they're in league with this group, the other they’re against them," Larin explained. 

So far, police have seen no signs of retaliation from the groups.         

"Our focus during the previous weekend was to keep the pressure at these developments — to make it feel like we’re watching without the residents feeling like they were under siege," Larin explained. 

The fight "was very scary," he added, but "fortunately no one got struck."