The NYPD is offering a $3,500 reward for information about the Randalls Island shooting that left a migrant mother dead, whose grieving family says she was “in the wrong place with the wrong people.”
Authorities said Sandra Serrano, 44, was shot in the face and back early Monday by a gunman on a moped in Block 71, about a quarter-mile from the migrant shelter on Randalls Island, and that two other people were also shot and killed.
The slain Venezuelan migrant woman, Sandra Martinez, was living in the shelter with her husband and two daughters, her family said. According to Gothamist.
“We decided to come here, like everyone else, for a better future,” Serrano’s daughter, Oriana Martinez, 24, told the outlet in Spanish on Wednesday. “Unfortunately, my mother was in the wrong place with the wrong people.”
Two other people, a 32-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman, were shot and taken to hospital in stable condition, police said.
Now, the NYPD is urging anyone with information about deadly gun violence incidents to come forward in exchange for a reward of up to $3,500 offered by Crime Stoppers.
New York Police Sergeant John Chell said at a press conference on Monday that the victims were part of a crowd of about 50 people who were celebrating around 3:30 a.m. after the results of Venezuela’s presidential election were announced.
“We were excited about the election,” Oriana Martinez told Gothamist. [Nicolás Maduro] The regime was gone, and our plan was to work here, earn some money, send it back home, fix up our little house and go back home.”
But instead, the family was plunged into tragedy.
“We were waiting for the results,” Oriana said, “and my mother was drinking and dancing, and then the suspect came and started shooting.”
Another victim’s daughter, Jairovice Martinez, told Gothamist that she saw the gunman arrive at the celebration on a moped and fire at celebrants from a distance.
“My mother was shot for no reason,” Gyrovis said. “Then everyone ran away and we were left there alone with no help.”
Chell said Monday that the shooting was apparently in retaliation for an earlier robbery.
“The motive we believe right now is that the shooter was the victim of an unreported robbery with a shooting,” Chell said. “It happened earlier in the evening. We don’t know the exact time.”
The slain woman’s daughter lamented the dangerous conditions in the tent city built to house thousands of migrants streaming into New York from the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Randalls is really dangerous. You can’t leave your stuff alone because people will steal it, and you can’t be friends with anyone because you don’t know what’s really going on,” Oriana said. “My mother was a normal person and she happened to be there and she died, so everyone is scared.”
The site has been the subject of controversy in the past, including violent incidents.
Last month, fights broke out at the site between rival immigrant groups, leading to several arrests.
Five men were charged with assault in April over a disturbance that left an asylum seeker with a stab wound and four security guards injured when they intervened.
Police said three people were arrested after an immigrant held at the facility was stabbed to death in January during a dispute over a woman.
Anyone with information about Monday’s bloody incident is asked to call the 25th Precinct Detective Unit at 212-860-6536 or the NYPD’s Crime Tip Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
The public can also submit information by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website. https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/or X @NYPDTips .
