Body Found on 122nd Street in Apparent Homicide

Police found a body shot once in the head in front of 359 West 122nd Street shortly before midnight Wednesday.

Police have identified the victim as Michael Milhouse, a 42-year-old black male, according to a flyer that local residents said police distributed to them. A police report said officers found Milhouse lying “unconscious and unresponsive on the sidewalk,” and “E.M.S. responded and pronounced the victim D.O.A. [dead on arrival] at the scene.”

No arrests have been made for the homicide, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.

One resident who lives on the street said she was surprised because she saw police outside shortly after 1 a.m. but heard no gunshots. Other residents also reported hearing no loud noises Wednesday night.

“It is New York City. Things happen,” said the resident, who declined to be named. “Different things touch different people’s lives based on the lifestyle they live, and my lifestyle is not such.”

122nd Street between Morningside and Manhattan Avenues is mostly residential, consisting of a series of brownstone residences. The neighborhood has seen little crime in recent years, though it used to be crime-ridden, several residents said.

“It’s a very nice, quiet neighborhood populated mostly by homeowners, that is all I know. I’ve never seen anything like that,” said another resident of the street—the mother of a family—who also declined to be named. “It’s really unfortunate. It’s really a scary situation.”

Several tenants blamed the apparent homicide on the presence of a scaffolding that surrounds 92 Morningisde Avenue. The scaffolding was erected following a 2002 fire that engulfed the entire building, which is now vacant. The scaffolding is badly maintained, and “there’s been a history of homeless people hanging out under there,” Yoel Borgenicht, who lives at 341 West 122nd street, said.

The empty building is frequently the location of drug deals, Ian Deorge, a resident of 361 West 122nd Street, said. “It’s an attraction. The scaffolding is a very closed area, and it’s easy for people to handle their business and leave,” he said. Deorge said he believed Wednesday’s homocide to be the result of “drug activity” in the building.

A mugging took place two weeks ago under the scaffolding, another resident, of 345 West 122nd Street, said. “That scaffolding has been consistently a problem. I avoid it, we all avoid it,” the resident, who declined to be named, said. “The owner, he’s a delinquent. That building has been burnt out for five years, and he’s done very little to keep it maintained.”

92 Morningside Avenue has been the subject of 61 violations of the Department of Buildings, 44 filed complaints, and $5900 in fines, according to the DOB Web site. 15 complaints were for a defective or inoperative elevator, several for danger of falling debris, several for an inadequate or defective scaffolding, and several for the building being “vacant, open, and unguarded.”

The owner of 92 Morningside Avenue has yet to be reached for comment.

“The building has led to this crime, and it’s unfortunate that something bad has to happen first because the people in the area have tried to put a stop to it,” Deorge said.

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Daniel Amzallag can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com