Inwood, Alto Manhattan, NYC.
Photo: Mariela Lombard / El Diario NY
“Shattered. Destroyed… they cannot speak”, Vicente García responded to NY1 News when asked how his children were doing following the violent death of his wife Valeria Ortega, another apparent victim of a stray bullet in Upper Manhattan in broad daylight.
Ortega, a 64-year-old Dominican mother and grandmother, died following being shot in the head while walking to the supermarket with her son Monday morning in Inwood. was one of four people murdered on the streets of New York within 24 hours of Christmas.
“He told me he was coming back. I was going to the supermarket…”
Gillispia Savage, neighbor of Valeria Ortega
Apparently Ortega was hit by A lost bullet at Dyckman Street and Vermilyea Avenue around 11:31 a.m. Monday, just a few blocks from her home. She was later pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital.
The fatal shot occurred minutes following a 26-year-old man was shot and seriously injured a half mile away. It is not clear if there is a connection between the two shootings.
According to NYPD, Ortega was hit by a shooting between subjects from inside a car and two men on a scooter, very close to the area where he lived for three decades. He is survived by three children, three grandchildren and his 101-year-old mother, who has Alzheimer’s.
Neighbors also mourned her death, remembering her as a “generous” woman. who even took care of a resident of the same floor who lives alone and went blind. “He came yesterday (Monday) morning to give me my breakfast. He told me he was coming back. She was going to the supermarket. It’s like a piece of my heart has been taken away from me,” said neighbor Gillispia Savage.
No arrests have been made or suspects identified. Anyone with information should call to 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and in Spanish 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). Also through the page crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by text to 274637 (CRIMES), followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.