By Sadef Ali Kully
The 103rd Precinct had its first homicide since December after the arrival of pilot programs based on the NYPD’s new neighborhood policing plan.
On Aug. 16 around 5 a.m., police responded to a call and found 30-year-old Russell McKee from Laurelton shot multiple times about the torso near the corner of Camden Avenue and Liberty Avenue in St. Albans, police said.
Emergency medical services took McKee to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to officials.
Police would not confirm if the shooting was gang-related but did say no arrests had been made and the investigation was ongoing.
“We almost made it past the summer,” 103rd Community Affairs Detective Marc Costa said. “This is always sad.”
The 103rd Precinct has jurisdiction over the downtown Jamaica business district, Hollis, Lakewood, and Jamaica neighborhoods in southeast Queens.
In January through August 2014, the 103rd Precinct had a total of seven homicides compared to only one this year, according to NYPD statistics.
The 103rd is one of the precincts that implemented the mentorship pilot program, where veteran police officers took rookie officers under their wings to patrol the streets on foot beginning in January. Soon after it was followed by one of the first pilot programs for body cameras in the city.
The NYPD’s new One City: Safe and Fair Everywhere plan, which was announced in June after the City Council included an estimated 1,300 additional police officers in the final 2016 budget, started at the 103rd Precinct last month.
The new neighborhood policing plan is designed to provide designated officers to each neighborhood sector so they have the time and training necessary to deepen community relationships and transform the role of officers from traditionally reactive responders into proactive problem solvers in the community, according to the NYPD.
“We are getting nothing but positive feedback,” Costa said. “The officers are making their daily stops, routinely talking to business owners and residents. It’s going well.”
Former 103rd Precinct Community Council President Donna Clapton recalled during her retirement party in June experiencing the higher-crime period in the city from the 1980s up until this year. She said the 2007 Sean Bell tragedy, when NYPD detectives fatally shot a young black bridegroom 50 times outside a club in Jamaica, helped her push to strengthen ties between the police and community, but not without the help of a cooperative precinct.
“I would do a comparison – not all blacks are bad because of the action of one and not all police officers are bad because of the action of one,” she said.
Three of the five detectives involved in the shooting were tried and found not guilty in a non-jury trial in Queens.
“There are two sides to the story. It was important for me and still is that all police are not bad.”
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
