EAST VILLAGE — The NYPD ramped up its presence in Alphabet City after a series of shootings in the neighborhood.
Authorities placed a SkyWatch patrol tower on East Third Street near Avenue C over the weekend in response to a shooting in the area on Nov. 7.
The tower was set up across the street from the Bracetti Plaza housing complex, located at 251 E. Third St., last Friday, said Capt. James Franzo, the commanding officer of Public Service Area 4 which covers the 25 public housing developments in the 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th precincts.
According to Franzo, a 20-year-old man was shot outside the building on Nov. 7 at around 9 p.m. as he was waiting to be let inside by a friend.
While he stood outside with two other friends, two men approached them and started shooting, Franzo said. The men fired three shots and hit the victim in the right wrist. The 20-year-old was taken to Bellevue Hospital and released, he said.
“He can’t provide too much information because he didn’t get a good look at the people who shot him,” Franzo said. The victim also did not know why he was shot, he said.
Franzo said that another shooting took place on the corner of East Sixth Street and Avenue D on Nov. 9, but said that the case had been solved and was not related to the East Third Street shooting two days before.
The NYPD doesn’t place SkyWatch towers after each incident, Franzo said, but in this case investigators hope that it will help them learn more about the shooting.
“What it is about this shooting is that we’re not getting as much information as we’d like to know — not necessarily who did it, but being the police department we’d like to know what the shooting was over so we can deploy our resources correctly,” he said.
The towers are manned by an NYPD officer who surveys the area from above, and also contain a camera that records footage, he said.
The NYPD also placed light towers on the corner of East Fourth Street and Avenue C, as well as East Sixth Street and Avenue D to provide more visibility in those areas, he said.
“We’re in an area where the lighting is pretty good, [but] there are a couple spots that need a little help, so that’s why the lights are up there,” Franzo said. The extra lighting, he said, has been in the neighborhood since Wednesday.
Franzo did not know how much longer the SkyWatch and light towers would remain in the neighborhood but said they would probably be there for another week before the NYPD considered moving them.
“Everything’s reevaluated on a constant basis,” he said. "If there's an area in the city that requires [the towers] more than we need it over here, then it will go there."
Despite the presence of the towers, Franzo said the neighborhood was safe. No homicides have occurred this year and only five non-fatal shootings have taken place so far this year in public service area 4,, he said.
He said there were two homicides and eight non-fatal shootings in 2013, he said.
“It’s totally safe down here,” Franzo said.
