Despite police blanketing the Ingersoll Houses and surrounding Myrtle Avenue area with posters seeking information on the early Sunday morning triple homicide, nobody has come forward with credible information as of yet, police sources said.
The shooting incident occurred early Sunday morning when police responded to a call at the Ingersoll Houses Courtyard just off Myrtle and Flatbush avenues of shots being fired just before 2 a.m.
Upon arriving at the scene, they found 43-year-old Calvin Clinkscales of Queens, 39-year-old Lacount Simmons shot in the head, and 76-year-old Herbert Brown shot in the abdomen. Clinkscales and Simmons were declared dead at the scene. Brown was transported to New York Methodist Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
Both Brown and Simmons were longtime residents and beloved by neighbors, but thus far police have not received many tips.
“We’re sure some people heard or saw something, but the most difficult part is getting people to come forward,” said police sources.
Police also distributed this grainy video to media sources:
[youtube id=”KUKLDDZdTg0″]
One law enforcement source theorized the shooting was gang and drug related, and was “pretty much planned.”
“It appeared to be orchestrated and not something randomly done. They waited until everybody was outside and the old man (Brown) appeared to be an innocent bystander,” said the source.
The source further theorized the motive could have been that somebody was owed money from gang-related drug dealing.
It used to be older guys would hire younger guys as scouts or steerers, but this could be the other way around. Perhaps the older guys were used as customers to bring more business, the source said.
The source noted that up until the incident, Ingersoll was one of the least problematic NYCHA developments in the city, but because of all the media and political attention following the crime, police are pulling out all the stops to find the perpetrators involved.
“When something happens in the projects often times people know something but they don’t say anything. Eventually somebody gets called for something else and probably will give them up because they don’t want to go away (to jail),” the source said.
Anyone with any information about the shootings are being urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
