A woman is recovering after someone shot through the peephole of her apartment in New York City. The 37-year-old was in her Manhattan residence when she heard a knock on the door. The woman was attempting to identify who had knocked as a shot rang out, striking her in the face. A spokesperson for the NYPD says they don't believe the woman was the target of the attack, suggesting perhaps this was a hit aimed at another resident. However, if that sounds familiar to you, it's probably because this isn't the first time this has happened.
In 2018, a 45-year-old woman named Wendy Martinez was shot and killed by a gunman who knocked on the door of her Bronx apartment and then fired through the peephole. A private investigator at the time suggested Martinez wasn't the intended target. The security footage above was released shortly after, showing a mystery man carrying an umbrella. The man went up to the apartment, just out of frame, fired the shot and fled from the building.
In February of 2019, a 56-year-old man was in his Bronx apartment when a strikingly similar incident took place. The man heard a knock on his door at around 6:30AM and looked through the peephole to see who it was. He was shot in the face and rushed to the hospital where he survived. Surveillance video showed him hiding behind an umbrella to conceal his identity.
These similar stories all occurred in fairly close proximity to one another. But were they related? Investigators won't say if they're considering a link between the cases and there have been no arrests in the three incidents.