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Police interview a resident of 165 Sherman Avenue. Earlier in the
morning an officer traded fire with an individual on the sixth floor. PHOTO: Daniel P. Bader
Shots were exchanged between law enforcement officials and a Sherman Avenue man on the sixth floor of an Inwood apartment building on Tue., July 13.
“I heard a lot of gunshots when I was leaving,” said Clara Toro, a resident of the building, 165 Sherman Avenue. “It sounded like firecrackers.”
An officer was attempting to execute a federal gun warrant when the fight broke out. No one was hit by the flying bullets, however the officer fell backwards and cut his arm around the elbow.
Toro said she was walking down the stairs from her fourth floor apartment at approximately 8:25 a.m. when the shots went off and officers stormed into the building.
She said she saw police come out with one of her upstairs neighbors, a Cuban man who has lived in the building for two years. Police confirmed they arrested the suspect in the warrant, but wouldn’t provide additional information.
After the arrest, police cordoned off half the street and kept residents, like Toro, waiting outside police lines while officials and crime scene investigators worked inside the building, which is located between Academy Street and W. 204th Street.
Residents still in the building were not allowed to leave, but authorities made exceptions for several with pets in need of a walk. Around noon residents who had identification and could prove they lived in the building were allowed back in.
Toro called her job at the Museum of Modern Art to say she wouldn't come in because her two daughters, one 20 years old, the other 17, were still inside the building.
“No job is worth my daughters’ safety,” Toro said.
She moved to the neighborhood four years ago and is fed up.
“I can’t wait to get out,” she said. At night the street is crazy, she said, and once she gets home from her job, she doesn’t venture outside.
“It’s not the neighborhood, it’s the people. It’s just getting worse,” Toro said.
Correction: A previous version of this article gave the incorrect address of the building.
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