Police investigate the scene where 3 people were shot dead in Queens.
A boy who the police say was bludgeoned to death by his mother, three men cut down in a car by the spray of an assault rifle and a shop owner fatally shot in his store were among seven people killed in New York between Friday night and early Saturday.
The police said the boy’s mother called 911 from her apartment on Marcus Garvey Boulevard in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, just before 11 p.m. Friday, and said that she had killed her son and then swallowed pills. Officers found the boy, 7, lying in bed with “bruising and lacerations” to the back of his head, according to a police official.
He was declared dead at the apartment, and his mother, Tenika Revell, was taken to Woodhull Medical Center for evaluation. Ms. Revell, 40, was charged with murder, manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.
Neighbors said Ms. Revell had treated the boy, Bernard, lovingly, buying him snacks, watching him ride a bicycle and holding his hand while crossing streets.
Several people said Ms. Revell had told them she received a diagnosis of terminal cancer.
“She was always very nice, and when she came in with the boy, she would buy him cakes, potato chips, water,” said Raymond Espinal, 56, who works at a bodega in the building where the boy lived.
Just after 11 p.m., the police responded to a report of a man lying unconscious on the floor of a clothing shop, Valentino Fashion, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The man, Mohamed Gebeli, 65, had been shot in the neck, the police said. Mr. Gebeli was pronounced dead at Lutheran Medical Center.
On Saturday, neighbors said Mr. Gebeli had been one of a tight-knit group of business owners in the neighborhood who looked out for one another.
“He was a good man,” said Sam Nehme, 72, who runs a real estate office next door to Valentino Fashion. “He would open my door and check up on me once in a while.”
The police and residents said people in the neighborhood became concerned when they saw the store’s lights burning brightly long after the usual closing time.
Katherine Khatari, 51, who owns a candy and coffee shop down the street and had known Mr. Gebeli for 18 years, said that he would give clothes away to needy people and worked out payment plans with others.
“If you came into his shop and didn’t have any money, he would give you clothes,” she said.
On Saturday in Springfield Gardens, Queens, officers responded to a call of shots fired and found a Jeep Grand Cherokee double-parked on 144th Street, across from Springfield Gardens High School. The bodies of two men were found in the car about 5 a.m., and the body of a third man was found on the street by the rear passenger door. All three men were declared dead at the site. Their names were not immediately released.
More than 50 shells from an assault rifle, as well as shells from a 9-millimeter pistol, were recovered, the police said.
Shirley Farrell, a hospital aide, said one of the bullets pierced her glass door. “There were so many booms all at once,” Ms. Farrell, 51, said. “I have three children, and my children are traumatized. They don’t want to come outside.”
The brazenness of the attack recalled the murderous violence of two decades ago, when crack kingpins dominated the streets of Springfield Gardens.
“I have not seen a crime scene like this since the ’90s,” said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. “The rounds tore these bodies apart.”
The police said there were also two other homicides, one in the Bronx and one in Brooklyn.
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