By Phil Corso and Christina Santucci
Police were still looking for clues to identify who may have shot and killed a 24-year-old former resident of LeFrak City in Elmhurst Saturday, putting an end to a 10-day city streak without a murder, the NYPD said.
Officers responded to a call of a man bleeding inside a basement apartment at LeFrak City around 6 p.m. Saturday, when they found Jahim Campbell unconscious and unresponsive, police said. Campbell had been shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the NYPD said no arrests had yet been made and the investigation was ongoing.
Campbell’s weekend murder ended a 10-day stretch without any homicides citywide, police said. The most recent murder had been a double homicide in the Bronx Jan. 16.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the drop-off in homicides was probably linked to the extremely cold weather that gripped the region recently.
There have also been questions about the death of a woman in her 40s found Friday morning in Brooklyn, the NYPD said, but autopsy results were not yet available, according to the city’s medical examiner’s office.
On the corner of 99th Street, across the street from the LeFrak complex, a makeshift memorial of four white and eight red candles, one wrapped in a red bandana, had been set up for Campbell by Sunday afternoon. Messages were written on the candles with markers using his nickname, “Kiko.”
“RIP Love you Old School,” one message said.
“I love you like a brother. Thank you for taking care of my sister,” read another.
Residents of the LeFrak building where police said Campbell had lived for more than 15 years, said he, his four siblings and mother had moved out several months ago after an eviction notice had been posted on their door. Neighbors complained of frequent comings and goings and loud music at Campbell’s apartment over the years, and two neighbors, who asked not to be identified, said authorities had visited the apartment before the family moved out.
“We woke up scared a few times when the police and FBI came in,” one neighbor said.
Soon after, an eviction notice was posted on the front door. About six months later, the family was gone, neighbors said.
“We were just so glad when they finally moved out,” one longtime LeFrak resident said.
But just across the street from his former LeFrak City apartment building, Campbell was remembered as a friendly person.
“He’s a nice guy. That’s all I can tell you,” said Jamal Alsaidi, a clerk who works in the deli across the street from LeFrak City. “He never gives us a hard time.”
Reach reporter Phil Corso by e-mail at pcorso@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
