Police discovered a dead body in front of 359 West 122nd St. Wednesday night, leading many in the neighborhood to blame a nearby vacant building for a recent surge of crime. The body had been shot once in the head.
Police have identified the victim as Michael Milhouse, a 42-year-old black male. 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 as of Friday morning, 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.”
The block of 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 crime used to be higher, 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 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 an empty building—92 Morningside Ave.—and the scaffolding that surrounds it, erected following a 2002 fire that engulfed the building and drove out residents. The scaffolding is badly maintained and has collapsed three times onto pedestrians and cars, a resident of the block said.
The scaffolding has “a history of homeless people hanging out under there,” which is a cause of crime and “quality of life issues” in the neighborhood, said Yoel Borgenicht, who lives at 341 W. 122nd St. Homeless persons under the scaffolding frequently harass local students on their way to P.S. 125 on West 123rd Street, a resident said. A mugging took place two weeks ago under the scaffolding, reported another resident, of 345 W. 122nd St.
The empty building is the constant location of drug deals, added Ian Deorge, a resident of 361 W. 122nd St. “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 homicide to be the result of “drug activity” in the building.
"The body that appeared wasn’t out of nowhere, it was out of a continuing appalling problem that we’ve been trying to address with city agencies,” said another resident who declined to be named out of fear of “ramifications” from the building’s owner, Baruch Singer, whom he called “the city’s most notorious slum lord.”
“This guy is very powerful. He has the Department of Buildings in his hands, and he can do me a lot of damage,” the resident added. Singer has been the focus of heated criticism in recent years regarding his developments, but residents say they have been seeking help from the local police precinct—resulting in some arrests—the Department of Health, the DOB, and several local politicians.
92 Morningside Ave. has been the subject of 61 violations of the DOB, 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.”
Singer, his spokesperson, and his attorney, Sean O'Donnell, could not 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.
Daniel Amzallag can be reached at specnews@columbia.edu