In a tragic turn of events on a summer night in Brooklyn, Enny DeJesus Urbina Mendez, a 21-year-old man, was fatally shot in a brazen act of violence. The incident unfolded shortly before midnight on July 21st, outside a migrant shelter located at 29 Ryerson Street in the Clinton Hill neighborhood. Urbina Mendez was a resident of the shelter at the time of the shooting.
The attack was carried out by two individuals who arrived on a moped and opened fire.
Urbina Mendez sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his chest, left leg, and left shoulder. He was rushed to NYC Health+Hospitals Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead. A second man, 59-year-old Francisco Fuentes Rangel, was also shot in the head during the same incident and succumbed to his injuries days later. Both Urbina Mendez and Fuentes Rangel were residents of the shelter.
The shooting was part of a violent spree that began just minutes earlier at the nearby Steuben Playground. In that incident, 30-year-old Arturo Jose Rodriguez-Marcano was also shot and killed. Police initially believed the two shootings were connected.
An investigation led to the arrest of 26-year-old Jorge Said Benitez Villa. He was charged with two counts of murder in the second degree for the deaths of Urbina Mendez and Fuentes Rangel. Authorities stated that Benitez Villa and an unidentified accomplice pulled up to the shelter on a moped and began shooting. Following the shooting, the suspects fled on the moped but crashed into a vehicle a few blocks away. Benitez Villa, who was driving, was injured in the crash and subsequently taken into custody while his passenger, the alleged gunman, managed to escape. In connection with the earlier shooting of Rodriguez-Marcano, police later arrested 23-year-old Elijah Mitchell, a seasonal Parks Department employee.
