A 32-year-old man and a 1-year-old girl are recovering after gunfire broke out near Cortlandt Avenue in Melrose Monday afternoon, with the man shot in the ankle and the child cut by flying glass from a bullet-shattered car window. Police say no arrests have been made, and the cause of the shooting remains unclear.
The shooting happened just after 4 p.m. near 726 Cortlandt Avenue, according to News 12 Bronx. The man was struck in the ankle and taken to Lincoln Hospital, the outlet reported. Police say a bullet fragment then struck a parked 2023 Honda Civic, shattering one of its windows.
Inside the Civic were a 16-year-old girl and a 1-year-old girl, per the same report. The toddler suffered minor injuries from the broken glass and was also taken to Lincoln Hospital, officials said. It remains unclear whether the people involved in the shooting knew each other, and investigators have not said whether the man was the intended target.
Lincoln Hospital's Role as the Area's Trauma Hub
Both the wounded man and the injured toddler were brought to NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln, the Level 1 Trauma Center that serves as the primary municipal emergency facility for the 40th Precinct and handles more than 168,000 emergency department visits a year, according to NYC Health + Hospitals. The facility regularly absorbs trauma cases from shootings and violent incidents across the South Bronx.
Monday's shooting adds to a mixed public safety picture in the 40th Precinct, which covers Melrose and Mott Haven. Official NYPD CompStat figures recorded 22 shooting incidents and 25 shooting victims in the precinct year-to-date through October 4, an 8.3% drop in incidents and a 10.7% drop in victims compared to the same period last year, according to the NYPD. Felony assaults, however, climbed 8.0% over the same stretch, rising to 869 complaints from 805 a year earlier.
A Pattern of Gun Violence Along Cortlandt Avenue
The shooting is the latest in a string of violent incidents in the Melrose and Mott Haven corridor this year. On August 25, a 33-year-old man was killed during a robbery at a deli on East 149th Street, a case that led to a September indictment charging a 31-year-old suspect with murder and attempted murder, as Hoodline reported in a prior story on the killings. Weeks later, a man was wounded in a separate daytime shooting at a Mott Haven deli with no arrests made.
Earlier this month, a 35-year-old Melrose woman died after being found beaten inside her apartment building, another case being handled by the 40th Precinct. And in March 2025, the Bronx District Attorney's Office indicted seven alleged members of the Courtlandt Over Everything street gang in connection with a series of retaliatory shootings across Melrose and Mott Haven. It remains unknown whether local gang activity played any role in Monday's shooting.
Potential Charges if a Suspect Is Identified
No one has been arrested in connection with Monday's shooting, and police have not said whether the gunman acted alone. If a suspect is eventually identified and found to have used an unlicensed, loaded firearm outside the home, New York Penal Law allows prosecutors to pursue Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, a Class C violent felony carrying a mandatory minimum of 3.5 years in prison and a maximum of 15 years, according to Tully Rinckey PLLC.
Prosecutors could also consider First-Degree Reckless Endangerment, a Class D felony punishable by up to seven years when conduct creates a grave risk of death to others, per Fast Law. Because a child was injured by the shattered glass, Endangering the Welfare of a Child, a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail, could also come into play, according to the Law Office of Matthew Galluzzo.
The NYPD has invested in added patrol capacity in the area in recent years, including an $85 million 40th Precinct station house that opened at 567 East 149th Street in late 2024 and an April restaffing of a former 138th Street building as headquarters for Patrol Borough Bronx South, adding roughly 200 officers to South Bronx commands.
No further details have been released about a possible motive, and investigators have not said whether the man wounded in the ankle was the intended target. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact police as the investigation continues.
