Machine Gun Mayhem

A 33-year-old Brooklyn man, Patrick Ledger, has been charged with attempted murder, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment after he opened fire with a .45 caliber machine pistol on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica, while muttering to himself, at approximately 5:45 p.m. on Monday, November 13.
Responding to a flood of 9-1-1 calls, police arrived on the scene and followed Ledger to the rear of the Radio Shack at 175-51 Hillside Avenue, where they confronted him and shots were exchanged. Ledger was admitted to Mary Immaculate Hospital in serious condition from gunshot wounds.
The shooting reportedly started near the subway stop at 179th Street, but quickly progressed towards the Radio Shack - a block or so west. A Radio Shack employee, who spoke to The Queens Courier on condition of anonymity, said that two youths entered the store and told the staff there was someone shooting and they should lock the doors.
Then she saw crowds of people running past the store through the window, and heard three shots. The manager came from the back of the store having heard more shots, and asked what had happened. &#8220It was then we realized those guys were telling the truth.” The manager locked the back door and the front door, and they all took cover.
&#8220Then the police told us to unlock the door and three policemen ran through and unlocked the back door and ran out the back where there were many more policemen waiting,” she said. &#8220I didn't see anything else but it was all over then, and they got the man.”
Meanwhile the basketball coach at nearby Mary Louis Academy, a Catholic high school for girls, heard the gunfire and immediately called the school's principal Sister Kathleen McKinney who put the school in lockdown.
&#8220At that late hour there were only 60 girls still in the building, and the coaches and moderators, who were joined by two additional sisters from the convent, stayed with the girls until the last one was picked up by a parent or family member,” McKinney said.
Although she had been told by the police that the incident was over, no one knew what conditions the girls would encounter on Hillside Avenue, so they were kept at the school. &#8220Our first concern was for the girls' safety,” McKinney said.
Juliet Lewis, a spokesperson for Mary Immaculate Hospital said that Ledger had been transferred from the hospital to an unnamed location. Police at the 103rd Precinct reported that as of Tuesday, November 14, Ledger's condition had been upgraded from serious to stable.
A police spokesperson confirmed that Ledger had been hit in the eye by a police officer returning fire after he trained his gun on police. No one else was hurt in the incident, and although the police officers involved were taken to North Shore Hospital for trauma treatment, they are all doing fine. According to the Precinct, three suspects were taken into custody, and two weapons were found at the scene, the .45 caliber machine pistol with a silencer and a Glock 9mm. The motivation for the rampage is not known yet.
Jamaica Estates, the neighborhood where the shooting took place, is a tree-lined, affluent and normally safe section of central Queens. The subway stop at 179th Street on Hillside Avenue is one of the busiest in the city; serviced by several connecting bus lines.
Diane Niameth, who works at Modern Age Salon near the subway stop, shook her head, &#8220I've been on Hillside for sixteen years and there's never been anything like this,” she said.