By Sadef Ali Kully
Despite the fatal shooting of a 16-year-old man on Dec. 31 in South Jamaica, newly promoted Inspector John Cappelman said Tuesday night overall crime was down 6 percent in the surrounding neighborhoods of downtown Jamaica at a 103rd community precinct meeting.
The monthly meeting included a special guest, NYPD Chief of Community Affairs Joanne Jaffe, who discussed new units including an outreach initiative to help immigrants feel welcomed and understand that police officers were there to protect them.
“Crime going down 6 percent is a major achievement for us,” Cappelman said, who was promoted Dec. 18 from the post of deputy inspector. “We had a great year.”
The 103rd Precinct covers neighborhoods in and around the downtown Jamaica Business District, including Hollis Park Gardens, Hollis, Lakewood and Jamaica.
“But a major concern for us is gang violence,” he said. “We are working really closely with gang units.”
According to Cappelman, there were 18 shootings and 18 shooting victims in 2015, but overall crime has decreased 6 percent when compared to 2014.
In 2015, at the 103rd Precinct there were a total of six homicides, 28 rapes, 383 robberies, 444 felony assaults, 249 burglaries, 505 grand larceny and 108 grand larceny auto incidents reported, according to the latest NYPD statistics.
For an eight-month period, from January through August 2015, the 103rd Precinct had a total of one homicide, when 30-year old Russell McKee was the victim of a fatal shooting robbery by two male suspects while waiting on the corner of Camden and Liberty Avenies for his friends, according to police — compared to seven in 2014 during the same time period, according to NYPD statistics.
In 2015, a total of six homicides occurred within the 103rd Precinct, according to the latest NYPD statistics.
The last murder of the year took place 30 minutes before midnight on Dec. 31 when 103rd Precinct police officers found 16-year-old Jihad Jackson, from Rosedale, shot once in the neck at the corner of 109th Avenue and Merrick Boulevard. He was unresponsive, according to police officials, who also said emergency responders pronounced Jihad dead at the scene.
Cappelman said Jihad Jackson had traveled back to his Rosedale home from Washington, D.C during a family trip. He stopped over at a friend’s house and hung out with some pals for the new year when a gun went off and shot him, according to Cappelman.
According to the criminal complaint filed by the Queens district attorney, three suspects, were arrested and charged with tampering with evidence—Eduardo Placencia, 18; Natalie Placencia, 49, Eduardo’s mother; and her boyfriend, Dorian Carr, 48. All three live near the scene of the slaying.
Police sources said there was evidence from the Placencia home on Merrick Boulevard indicating that after Jihad was shot, he was moved outside and investigators at the scene found a bloody cloth outside in the bushes near the Placencia home.
Carr, admitted that Jackson’s body was removed from the home.
Investigators have not yet found the gun involved in the shooting, according to Cappelman, and police said the investigation is ongoing.
Reach Reporter Sadef Ali Kully by e-mail at skull
