By Rich Bockmann
A young man was gunned down on Hollis Avenue early Monday evening, just a few doors away from the library where his three younger sisters were studying after school.
Police said they responded to a 911 call just before 6 p.m. about a male shot in front of Hollis Wine & Liquors, at 204-13 Hollis Ave., where they discovered 30-year old Jerry Lodvill, who had been shot multiple times.
Lodvill was taken by EMS to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.
Mamamarde Lodvill said her son had just come from a friend’s funeral when he was walking down the street with his girlfriend.
“A man in a jacket and a black hoodie came up and shot him three times,” she said. “His girlfriend said there was no argument. He was very calm.”
An employee at a nearby store said he did not hear any gunshots — he assumed they were drowned out by the sounds of children from the playground at IS 192, across the street.
“I saw a big crowd standing around, but I just thought it had something to do with the playground. Then I heard someone got shot,” he said.
Lodvill’s 11-year old sister, Ashley, said she and her two sisters Nathalia, 11, and Joanna, 15, were inside the Hollis branch of the Queens Library when they heard the gunshots.
“People came in and said someone got shot. I remembered I saw him earlier and the sneakers he was wearing. They were like brownish-green, and then I saw them when they were putting the person in the ambulance,” the young girl said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh! It’s really him!’”
Lodvill’s family returned from the hospital Tuesday morning as friends began stopping by their home on 110th Avenue in Queens Village to offer their condolences.
Nicole Ford said she met Lodvill through her daughter, Cassandra, and she had become good friends with the young man.
“He was a very nice person. We talked about my kids and his family,” she said.
The stretch of Hollis Avenue where Lodvill was fatally shot has seen violent crime before. Two years ago, 31-year-old Sam Deas was shot and killed Feb. 22, just one block down the street from where Lodvill was attacked.
That was the deadliest day of 2010 in southeast Queens. A family of four died in a murder/suicide in Rosedale and another man was shot and killed in South Jamaica.
As of press time Tuesday, the police did not have a description of the suspect in Lodvill’s killing and the investigation was ongoing.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
