Two seemingly random assaults in New York Metropolis and Philadelphia final week may very well be linked to a single particular person, authorities stated Friday.
The 2 victims survived. In each circumstances, the shooter appeared to goal for the pinnacle, in keeping with police and safety video.
The video, edited by the Philadelphia Police Division and launched Friday, reveals a person in each assaults carrying almost an identical clothes: a blue hoodie; grey pants with distinctive, expanded cargo pockets; mountain climbing or army fashion boots; darkish gloves; and a face protecting, together with a attainable masks, ski masks, or hoodie closed round tight.
The shooter within the Philadelphia assault the afternoon of Nov. 25 used a silver revolver, police stated.
He walked as much as a uniformed Philadelphia Parking Authority officer working beneath elevated transit tracks and opened hearth from behind at shut vary, in keeping with police statements and the edited video.
The sufferer, recognized by metropolis parking authorities as Timothy McKenzie, 37, sustained accidents on his ear and a shoulder, police stated.
McKenzie, who had been issuing citations on the block the place he was shot, was hospitalized in crucial situation however has been stabilized, police stated.
“Whereas Tim continues to enhance as every day passes, we should do our half to help legislation enforcement in apprehending the legal who was intent on killing certainly one of our enforcement officers,” Philadelphia Parking Authority Chair Beth Grossman stated in a press release Wednesday.
Investigators imagine the shooter arrived by automobile after which walked as much as the sufferer to hold out the assault with a single shot earlier than fleeing, in keeping with NBC Philadelphia.
On Nov. 22, a person in comparable clothes walked as much as the cashier’s safe window at a Sunoco station within the New York borough of the Bronx, motioned to buy gasoline after which fired twice with out saying a phrase when the worker opened the door, in keeping with the New York Police Division and NBC New York.
The gasoline station worker, recognized by coworkers as Zulfigar Alvi, was shot within the left facet of his head, the place a bullet or fragment remained, the station reported. Alvi was intubated however was in any other case recovering, in keeping with the station.
A attainable connection between the assaults roughly 100 miles aside “has been made primarily based on the similarities of the bodily traits and clothes of the person being sought, in addition to the circumstances surrounding each shootings,” New York police stated in a press release Friday.
Within the Philadelphia assault, rewards for info resulting in an arrest and conviction amounted to $20,000.
Myles Miller contributed.