Two Deaths in the 73rd Precinct

BROWNSVILLE/BED-STUY – As May came to a close, two deaths occurred in Brooklyn’s 73rd precinct. At 6:30 AM on the morning of Friday, May 31st, police responded to an unconscious and unresponsive man at a Howard Avenue apartment building. Upon arrival, they found 46-year-old Umar Lee. EMS pronounced him dead at the scene.

Lee resided in the Brownsville apartment, and he was alone at the scene. The medical examiner will determine the cause of death. The investigation is on-going.

The following morning on Saturday, June 1st, a fatal shooting occurred on Chauncey Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Malik Russell, a 29-year-old man who lived several blocks away in the Ocean Hill Houses, was found with a gunshot wound to the chest at 4:47 AM.

According to the Daily News, Russell’s body was found beside a trash heap. They also report that Russell had recently become a father. No arrests have been made as of yet, but the investigation is in progress.

Anyone with information in regard to either of these incidents are asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the CrimeStoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, on Twitter @NYPDTips. All calls are strictly confidential.