A 49-year-old man was shot in the buttock early Sunday, August 16, while walking in front of 1997 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, when an unidentified gunman displayed a firearm and opened fire before fleeing westbound on West Tremont Avenue in a white sedan. The shooting happened at approximately 5:15 a.m. within the confines of the 46th Precinct, along the elevated 4 train corridor on the border of Mount Hope and Morris Heights.
Police have identified the getaway vehicle as a white sedan bearing New York license plate J61RNZ, according to NYPD Crime Stoppers. Investigators have not identified a suspect and are asking anyone with information to come forward. Tips can be submitted via direct message to @NYPDTips or by calling 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), with NYPD Crime Stoppers offering up to $3,500 for an anonymous tip that leads to an arrest and indictment.
🚨WANTED FOR AN ASSAULT: On Sunday, August 16, 2026, at approximately 5:15 AM, in front of 1997 Jerome Avenue, confines of the 46 Precinct, a 49-year-old male victim was walking when an unidentified individual displayed a firearm and discharged it striking the victim in the… pic.twitter.com/GqWAiEEypa
— NYPD Crime Stoppers (@NYPDTips) August 24, 2026
The stretch of Jerome Avenue where the shooting occurred runs beneath the elevated subway tracks in a corridor lined with commercial storefronts, according to the NYPD. The address sits within the 92-block area covered by the Jerome Avenue Neighborhood Plan, a rezoning approved by the New York City Council in March 2018 that aimed to convert the automotive corridor into mixed-use housing and commercial space, per the NYC Department of City Planning. Despite roughly $189 million in committed city capital investment tied to that plan, the same street-level stretches remain vulnerable to early-morning violence.
A Getaway Route Built for Speed
West Tremont Avenue, the road the shooter used to flee, is a major east-west arterial that connects Jerome Avenue directly to the Major Deegan Expressway and the Alexander Hamilton Bridge into Manhattan, according to the NYC Department of City Planning. That connectivity gives a fleeing driver a fast route out of the central Bronx and into the regional highway system, though it also opens the door to tracking via highway license plate readers along the route.
Should investigators identify and arrest a suspect, discharging a firearm and striking a victim is prosecuted under New York Penal Law as either Assault in the Second Degree or Assault in the First Degree, according to Petrus Law. Both are violent felonies that carry mandatory state prison sentences of up to 25 years.
A Precinct Bucking the Citywide Trend
The shooting adds to a troubling pattern within the 46th Precinct, which covers Mount Hope, University Heights, Morris Heights, and Fordham from its stationhouse at 2120 Ryer Avenue. CompStat data through June 2026 showed year-to-date felony assaults in the precinct rising 29.1%, to 510 reported incidents, compared with 395 during the same period in 2025, according to Norwood News.
That local spike stands in stark contrast to the citywide picture. NYPD statistics released in August 2026 showed New York City reaching record lows in shooting incidents, with 381 year-to-date through July, and in homicides over the same period, even as felony assaults edged up just 0.4% citywide, per Police1. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch has credited data-driven precision policing for the citywide declines, even as pockets of the Bronx tell a different story.
Part of a Broader Summer of Gun Violence Nearby
This is not an isolated incident for the area. Hoodline has reported on a Mount Hope Citi Bike shooting from August 7, in which two individuals riding a shared bike opened fire on a group of men nearby, and on a fatal shooting outside River Park Towers in Morris Heights back in April. Just a day before this shooting was publicized, Hoodline also covered a Fordham man attacked with a blunt object on East 183rd Street, part of the same surge in violent felony assaults tracked across the precinct.
How to Report a Tip
The Crime Stoppers program that put out the call for information is run by the nonprofit New York City Police Foundation, which funds the reward system independently of the city's police budget. Since the program began in 1983, anonymous tips have helped solve more than 5,600 violent crimes, including over 1,600 homicides and attempted homicides, and the foundation has distributed more than $3.4 million in rewards. Callers are assigned an encrypted numeric code so they never have to reveal their identity or testify in court.
Anyone with information about the shooting or the white sedan can contact NYPD Crime Stoppers by direct message to @NYPDTips or by phone. No arrests had been announced as of Monday, and the identity of the shooter remains unknown.
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