NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Manuel Ayala, a 79-year old Mexican national residing at 125 Second Street in New Rochelle, died Sunday after he was shot while sitting on a milk crate outside of a bodega at 238 Union Avenue in the West End of the city on Saturday night.
The incident took place at 11:18 pm on Saturday. Police responding to the scene found a male/hispanic with a gunshot wound in the chest. He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
Police were looking for male/black in a white t-shirt who may have had some sort of verbal altercation with three male/hispanics who were outside the same store. Police believe the man was an uninvolved part who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The victim, according to two family members who spoke with Talk of the Sound, was shot in the area between his shoulder or chest. One famliy member, an ear witness to the shooting, said two shots were fired, with one striking the victim.
Police believe the shooter was in front of 69 Third Avenue and fired shots from Third Avenue, across Union Avenue, and missed his intended target, the group of hispanic males that had congreated in front of the store.
The suspect fled the scene. Police were reviewing video footage from police surveillance cameras positioned nearby.
Police asked that anyone with information to contact Detective Claudio Carpano of the New Rochelle Police Department Criminal Investigation Unit at 914-654-2260.
