Fourth Of July Fireworks Torch NYPD Car, And More In Weekend Crime

It was a busy weekend for crime in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, with shootings and a fireworks attack lighting up the streets in the worst way.

First, an early Saturday morning shooting in Crown Heights left a Clinton Hill man, 42-year-old Keith Jeffery, dead of gunshot wounds to the chest and neck, said police. Jeffery had been playing dice with others at a party inside the Kingsborough Houses when a fight broke out at around 3:30pm and he was shot, reported the New York Daily News. The suspected shooter — described as a “heavyset man in a white shirt” — escaped.

Jeffery’s wife, Nehda Jeffery, told NYDN that “He was a good man. He was a father of five.”

Then, early Sunday morning, July 5, an attempt by cops to disperse a crowd of people setting off illegal fireworks on Carlton avenue near Lafayette Avenue resulted in a police car catching fire — due to someone throwing live fireworks inside the car, reported the New York Post.

It was around 2:30am when the incident happened and no one was injured in the blaze, which was put out by cops using a fire extinguisher. No arrests have yet been made.