Juneteenth was NYC’s deadliest day for shootings in 2023 so far

When Doniesha Ferguson spoke to her dad on Father’s Day, he was enjoying a favorite meal and a special gift.

“All he wanted was a wallet,” Doniesha said. “He called and said, ‘thank you for the gift.’ And he was eating his fried fish, and he was just so happy.”

Barely 24 hours later, Howard Ferguson was dead — the first of five people to be killed by gunfire on Juneteenth, making it the city’s deadliest day of gun violence so far this year.

Gun violence continues to trend downward citywide, with the NYPD’s CompStat tracking system showing 508 shooting victims this year to date, compared to 680 shooting victims at this time last year. About 20% of all shootings tend to be fatal.

But the one-day surge likely resulted from a complex convergence of factors, according to David Caba, the vice president of Good Shepherd’s Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (B.R.A.G.)

The fact that Monday was a federal holiday could be one reason.

“Holiday means idle time,” Caba said. “ And sometimes those celebrations, you know, lead to debates. And debates then lead to what we sometimes see when it comes to violence.”

The start of summer – a time when the heat and outdoor activities generally cause gun violence to increase – could be another. The fatal shootings spanned 11 hours and three boroughs and were all seemingly unrelated.

Ferguson, 48, was shot in the back around 12 p.m. at his usual bodega on White Plains Road in the Bronx after a scuffle with another man that police arrested and identified as Oriean Dorsett, 32. Doniesha Ferguson said Dorsett had been harassing her father all week, and things finally came to a head Monday when he went to get lunch.

“I hear this guy was picking on my dad for some time now, and that guy just socked him in his face and my dad fought back,” she said. “He did it so senselessly.”

Dorsett was charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal weapons possession. Police said he’d been caught with a loaded gun twice in 2015.

“They took a good man. He would always give his last no matter what. He would never want to see us hurting or crying or anything,” Doniesha said of her dad.

The bloodshed continued throughout the day.

Two hours later, a gunman came up to Alexander House, 27, who was sitting outside his building on Longwood Avenue in the Bronx. He was shot in the head at point blank range, according to police. Paramedics rushed him to St. Barnabas Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.

Neighbor Hercules Overton said he heard two shots and thought they were fireworks before realizing that House had been murdered.

“There was no fighting, no yelling, nothing like that,” he said. “This is a rough neighborhood, but for the most part it’s been quiet. It’s just sad.”

Overton said House suffered from a mental disability and was “like a kid.” He was his mother’s only child.

Almost four hours later, the violence jumped boroughs. Two men in black hoodies shot Amiere Hayes, 16, in the head less than a block away from his family’s apartment on Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bed-Stuy. An honor roll student at Brooklyn Laboratory whose family said he dreamed of playing basketball, Hayes was shot “because he lived here,” said his mother, Candy Johnson. “He was not the intended target.”

He was off from school because of the Juneteenth holiday, and had just finished shooting hoops with his friends.

“I’m just destroyed. He was a very good kid,” Johnson said. “I just want justice for my son, you know? Because he didn’t deserve this.”

Heidi Aude would feel similar devastation that night, as she learned her husband, Paul Gonzalez, 38, was the next to die by gunfire.

Just before 10 p.m., Gonzalez was gunned down on the sidewalk outside his Harlem apartment on West 140th Street. The couple’s 7-year-old daughter Nova, also off from school that day, was watching from the window.

“She’s so traumatized. I don’t know what to do,” Aude said. “He was a wonderful father, he was always with his kids, he was very attentive.”

The night wasn’t over.

Kevin Roberts, 56, was shot and killed on Simpson Street in the Bronx – a place where he was well-known as ‘K-tel’ or ‘Big Red,’ according to Facebook posts from grieving friends and neighbors.

“His untimely passing is a devastating, tragic, saddened, and a heartbreaking loss to the Simpson Street Community,” wrote Norman Lydell on Facebook. “Within each neighborhood in the 5 Boroughs of New York City, there was that one person, that STOOD OUT, was The Man, who was the Heart & Soul of the Community!!”

Police were not able to give further details on Roberts’ shooting and it remains under investigation.

Ten additional people were shot citywide but survived, according to the NYPD.

Caba, from the group B.R.A.G., said gun violence is often rooted in a lack of community resources – inadequate housing, limited access to mental and physical healthcare, low-quality food and a general shortage of things to do. B.R.A.G. and its partners work to bring these resources to the neighborhoods that need them most.

While Caba was quick to point out that today’s homicide rates in the five boroughs are “a small percentage” of what the city experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, the underlying issues that contribute to violence persist.

“Maybe if they had more centers and stuff where kids could be involved in things, you know, instead of just being out here on the streets. It’s a shame they don’t have after-school centers around here for these young kids, for them to be involved, like a Boys’ Club, stuff like that,” said Alexander House’s neighbor, Hercules Overton.

Police have not made arrests yet in the killings of Alexander House, Amiere Hayes or Kevin Roberts.

Besides Oriean Dorsett, arrested for allegedly killing Howard Ferguson, police caught up with Freddie Gaetan, 29, at a motel in Rockland County on Wednesday night. He was arrested and charged in the killing of Paul Gonzalez.

Aude said Gaetan and Gonzalez knew each other from the neighborhood since their school days.

“I don’t know why he did that,” she said. “I really don’t.”

According to police, Gaetan had been arrested in April 2021 for attempted murder. The Daily News reported that he did serve time, but was ultimately released.

“If they went to jail one time for a gun, watch them,” said Candy Johnson, now planning her son Amiere’s funeral. “Frisk them, because you never know what they have on them. If they had it on them, they’re going to keep carrying it.”