By Zach Patberg
By Sunday afternoon, a small stain of caked blood near the curb belonging to victim Curt Wilkis, 29, along with a multitude of scared residents was all that remained as evidence of the gunfight that spanned two blocks along 40th Avenue.The number of shots fired, which ranged from 10 to more than 30 by various accounts, came in two spurts separated by five to seven minutes, with the first resulting in the killing of Carl Turner, 21, who was found dead inside the housing project near 11th Street, police said. The initial round of gunshots at about 5:10 a.m. woke several residents in the vicinity. One middle-aged man said his startled wife went to their window, looked out and saw a young man, later identified as Wilkis, sprinting south down 9th street with an SUV in close pursuit. One of its passengers who was hanging out the window fired at Wilkis, the man said.At the corner of 40th Avenue, where Wilkis went down, three witnesses said he was bleeding from his side. One witness, a man who identified himself as H.M., said the SUV went in reverse and fled back toward 38th Avenue. Moments later a beige sedan pulled up to the corner and four women got out and ran screaming to Wilkis, who was lying face down on the curb, the witnesses said. As they wept over Wilkis' body, another man H.M. described as dressed in all white approached and as the women scattered calmly cocked his handgun and fired six more bullets into Wilkis at close range. He then walked back up 40th Avenue toward where the first round of shooting occurred, witnesses said.”He had no mercy,” H.M. said.Police swarmed over the area seconds later.Authorities would not comment on the reason for the slayings, but there was speculation that Turner, the first victim who lived in the housing project, was shot because of a dispute over stolen gambling money and that Wilkis, of Flushing, was killed out of revenge for Turner. Police said two guns were recovered at the scene but would not say whether a third shooter was involved. No arrests have been made.For many residents, drug and turf wars are not uncommon in the area around the Queensbridge Houses, the city's largest housing project.”Every weekend I hear shooting,” said the witness whose wife was too shaken at what she saw to talk. On the day they were moving into their building from Astoria, six months ago, the man said, their 15-year-old son was assaulted, suffering a near broken jaw. The incident, he said, was a foreshadowing of what was to come.”We've got to move from here,” the man said. “I don't like it. It's a very bad neighborhood. Very dangerous.”Reach reporter Zach Patberg by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
