Police are hunting for a man accused of shooting a repossession company worker while he was trying to hook a car up to his tow truck outside a home in Queens.
The 38-year-old victim arrived at a house on 128th Ave. in Springfield Gardens around 10:30 Friday morning and was trying to repossess two cars parked outside, when the suspect suddenly shot at him, hitting him in the left ankle, police said.
“He had pulled up and backed in” to the driveway, said Barry Smith, 57, a carpenter who was working across the street at the time. “I didn’t hear shots, but the guy was crying out, ‘I got shot! I got shot!’ I heard him crying,” Smith said, describing the scene.
“When the cops pulled them out of there, he cried, ‘Don’t touch me there!’ He was holding his left leg. The cops dragged him out and put him in the back of his tow truck. But then they realized he wasn’t the problem,” Smith said.
Police sent a drone through the front door of the home, but the suspect had already gotten away, Smith said.
“I heard the cops saying that the guy got out the back way,” he said. “They sent a drone in through the front door…but he was long gone out the back. It was crazy.”
Yolonda Sheppard, who lives in the home next door, told the Daily News the suspect lived in the home with a woman and a child, plus numerous other people.
“It’s a man and a woman and a child, and then he sublets to a whole bunch of people,” she said. “All of them are his cars. He loves his cars. It’s like a parking lot.”
The victim was attempting to repossess a black Nissan Ultima and a BMW, according to police. Three white, dollar van-style busses were also parked around the house on Friday evening.
“[The shooter] menaced me with a stick,” Sheppard said. “I hope they catch him. I hope they get him and lock him up. He’s a menace to society. He’s not good people.”
Medics transported the victim to Jamaica Hospital in stable condition, cops said.
Police are still searching for the suspect. The investigation is ongoing.