A 17-year-old boy was left in critical condition Friday afternoon after being shot in the chest near 760 East 183rd Street in Belmont, just steps from a local daycare center and a neighborhood playground. The shooting happened around 2:30 p.m. Friday, according to officials, in a stretch of the Bronx that has seen repeated gun violence in recent months.
Paramedics rushed the teen to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he remains in critical condition, according to News12 | Bronx. The hospital sits on Third Avenue at East 183rd Street, just blocks from the shooting scene, and is designated a Level II Trauma Center by New York State, per SBH Health System, making it the primary destination for serious trauma cases in the Belmont community. Information about what sparked the shooting was not immediately known, and police have not said whether any suspects have been identified.
The 17-year-old is at least the third teenager to fall victim to gun violence in the Bronx this week, the station's report notes. Just a day earlier, on August 13, a shooting inside a Bronx apartment left a 16-year-old dead and a 13-year-old wounded, according to a Facebook post documenting the incident — underscoring a grim cluster of young shooting victims across the borough in a matter of days.
A Block With a Long, Violent History
Friday's shooting is only the latest in a string of violent incidents tied to the same stretch of East 183rd Street. On March 4, 19-year-old Lamar Simmons was fatally shot in the chest just blocks away near East 183rd Street and Hughes Avenue, with three suspects fleeing the scene, according to News12 | Bronx's earlier reporting. Hoodline also covered that case in a piece titled Belmont Block Shut After Chest Shooting.
The address itself, 760 East 183rd Street, is known as Grote Street Apartments, a 240-unit affordable housing complex in Belmont, according to Justia Law records. In January 2023, police responded to a shooting at the same block where a 16-year-old suspect opened fire, leading to his arrest on attempted murder charges after officers recovered .32 and .380 caliber shell casings, per the Norwood News. Years earlier, in June 2018, a shooting inside the complex's residential courtyard left 37-year-old Miguel Aviles dead from a chest wound and a 25-year-old woman injured, according to the Bronx Times.
Precinct Programs Aim at Youth Violence, But Shootings Persist
The shooting site falls under the jurisdiction of the NYPD's 48th Precinct, which in May became the headquarters for the newly created Patrol Borough Bronx North command, as Hoodline previously reported. To combat juvenile crime, the precinct deploys dedicated Youth Coordination Officers and facilitates community initiatives such as Saturday Night Lights youth athletic programs, according to the NYPD 48th Precinct Council. Even so, Friday's shooting adds to a run of violent incidents within the same precinct in recent weeks, including a double shooting near the West Farms subway station just days earlier.
The NYPD routinely solicits public tips on open Bronx shooting cases through Crime Stoppers, offering cash rewards up to $3,500 for information leading to an arrest and indictment. Tipsters can call 1-800-577-TIPS or submit information through an online portal. Belmont has recorded several shootings this year alone, including a woman shot on Crotona Avenue in July and a 20-year-old shot in an early-morning attack that same month, as well as a daylight shooting that sent a 21-year-old to St. Barnabas in April. Whether the 17-year-old wounded Friday lived at Grote Street Apartments, and what led to the shooting, remain unanswered questions as the investigation continues.
