Crime Scenes

Whenever I’m anywhere near 75th Street and Fifth Avenue, I like to stop off at the Lincoln Savings Bank.

This fabulous old building is now a Chase branch, but it will always be the Lincoln to me because my mother used to work there many years ago selling Savings Bank Life Insurance.

Her desk was near the front door, and I used to drop in on her from time to time and shoot the breeze.

The place is sacred ground to me, so when I go there, I like to stand at the spot where her desk used to be and say a prayer.

That intersection became a crime scene last week—one of several throughout my neighborhood when a man with a history of mental illness struck at least 8 people with a U-Haul van.

Ye YiJie, who moved to this country from China 18 years ago, was killed outside the Lincoln Savings Bank. A father of three teenagers, he was the only victim to die.

I first learned about the rampage when my phone lit up with a bulletin about an attack in Brooklyn. I was frightened, but I reminded myself that Brooklyn is a very big place, and it could be happening miles away from me.

And then I saw that it was going on right here in Bay Ridge.

I called my sister, who lives about 20 blocks from me, and, of course, I couldn’t reach her immediately. And, of course, I freaked out.

There was this surreal stretch of time where I kept telling myself that everything was okay, while praying for my sister’s safety and still trying to my job.

'I Will Not Give In'

A lot of other people were experiencing the same emotions that day and I felt very happy when my sister called me back.

The victims were struck in several locations during the rampage, including one person who was hit on the corner of the block where I grew up.

The killer reportedly said that he was seeing things and told police officers “Shoot me. I will not give in.”

And on the same day, another deranged man went on a rampage at Michigan State University and shot three people to death. The gunman later killed himself.

Several MSU students were also at Oxford High School in 2021 when four people were shot to death and seven others were wounded.

One of the MSU students, Jackie Matthews, was also in lockdown during the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, 10 years ago, where 20 children and six adults were killed.

She recalled hiding under desks with her classmates for so long that she fractured vertebrae, an injury that to this day flares up when she’s under stress.

“The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible,” she said in a TikTok video.

I’d like to believe that, but in this bullet-riddled country we probably shouldn’t be surprised. The gun lobby rules this country and like the maniac in the van, they will not give in.

And I'm sure the gun-loving loons will point to the van attack and drop the old "guns don't kill people" line. I know that we'll never be able to stop murders, but we shouldn't be making it so goddamn easy.

The blood-soaked week ended on Friday with a man in Mississippi gunning down six people, including in his ex-wife, and a shooting at a gas station in Columbus, Georgia where 9 children were wounded.

I went to the Lincoln Savings Bank on Saturday morning. I had lot of people to pray for.