The 25-year-old man killed in East Harlem alongside an 18-year-old woman was a witness to at least three shootings in the last four years, police and sources said Monday.
Harry Mendoza and Ashley Ballard were both shot in the head at the corner of E. 128th St. and Lexington Ave. just after 7:25 p.m. Sunday, cops said.
Ballard also suffered a gunshot to the back, they added.
Both victims were rushed to Harlem Hospital, where Ballard was pronounced dead. Mendoza died later Sunday night.
It was not immediately clear why the couple was targeted, but police sources said Mendoza was a member of LA World street gang, sources said.
“Wrong time, wrong place,” Ballard’s mother said of her daughter’s death Monday. She also told the Daily News that Ballard and Mendoza were friends.
Ballard’s family are refusing to talk with police in the wake of the shooting, sources said.
There were no arrests as police continued to search for the gunman.
Over the last four years, Mendoza has been at the scene of multiple shootings, including one that killed 20-year-old Pond King.
King, also a member of LA World, was killed in a May 10, 2020 shooting on E. 126th St. near Lexington Ave. — just two blocks from where Mendoza would later be shot.
Mendoza also witnessed non-fatal shootings in East Harlem in 2018 and 2019. He has 25 prior arrests in New York, sources said.
So far this year, there have been four people killed in the NYPD’s 25th Precinct, which covers East Harlem, according to police data released Sunday.
As of the same time frame last year, there had not yet been a homicide in the precinct, according to the data.
