DRAMA:A cop trains his gun yesterday on Horace Coleman, who allegedly shot two people, including this man (below), near Yankee Stadium.
DRAMA: A cop trains his gun yesterday on Horace Coleman, who allegedly shot two people, including this man (below), near Yankee Stadium. (
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A rivalry between two Bronx vendors near Yankee Stadium erupted into gunfire yesterday — with a water hawker in a dark suit blasting a newspaper seller with whom he’d been arguing a day earlier, witnesses told The Post.
Horace Coleman, 52, allegedly pulled a revolver at about 1:30 p.m. in front of the Crown Diner at the corner of 161st Street and Gerard Avenue and fired three to six shots in multiple directions, sources said.
Two victims were rushed to Lincoln Hospital with bullet wounds to the torso.
Newspaper vendor Douglas Watkins, 60, underwent surgery late yesterday afternoon, a family member said. The condition of the second victim was unknown.
After the shooting, Coleman ran east on 161st Street and was chased by four officers from one of the nearby courthouses, a law-enforcement source said. A few blocks down, the shooter threw himself on the ground near a pizza parlor and tossed the gun aside. The court officers, who were on their lunch break, held him down until cops arrived at the scene minutes later, the source added.
He was quickly swarmed by police officers and arrested.
Workers at the busy intersection said Coleman and Watkins, a retired MTA conductor, had a “huge argument” the day before.
“This was a turf war,” said Leroy McGrant, 56, a local vendor. “One guy wanted the spot, the other guy had it, and that was what the argument was about.
“It’s a simple argument that got out of hand,” he added. “One guy just took it too far, and lots of people got hurt.”
Neighbor Barbara Elson, 71, said, “There was definitely some tension out there. It’s hot; there’s competition.”
“But this must have been going on a long time, because a gun doesn’t magically appear in your hands when you get mad,” she added.
The second victim, a 41-year-old man, was identified by relatives only as “Clay.” One source said he was a car washer in the area.
Witness Richard Ray, 48, said Coleman was “shooting out at the crowd.”
“This cross street is always swarming with people,” Ray added. “He could have killed so many people.”
Coleman’s mother denied the charges, saying, “He’s just working hard, trying to make an honest living. He’s been selling water every day for 10 years. He’s got a family to take care of.”
Coleman’s rap sheet includes a 1995 arrest for selling drugs. He served three years at the Clinton Correctional Facility upstate and was released on parole.
Additional reporting by Erin Calabrese