Man, 50, is shot dead outside Queens apartment building while sitting in Mercedes Benz in recently gentrified Long Island City neighborhood, where murders have dropped nearly 90 percent since 1990
A man was shot to death while sitting in his Mercedes Benz Thursday night in the Long Island City outside Manhattan.
According to the NYPD, 50-year-old Joseph Bryan was sitting in his vehicle on Orchard Street around 11:20 pm Thursday, when he was ambushed by a gunman and fatally shot multiple times in the torso.
He was rushed to nearby Mount Sinai Queens hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to authorities.
'Officers had to smash their way into the vehicle and they pulled the guy out and tried to resuscitate him until the ambulance arrived,' a witness told DailyMail.com.
The gunman then fled in another Mercedes Benz. No arrests had been made Friday morning.
'I heard a burst of gunfire at around 11 pm, very rapid and close by. I looked out my window and saw a car parked in the middle of the dead-end street to the side of my building,' the witness said.
'The building security came out and noticed something was wrong, and police were there very quickly. A helicopter, I think, spotted the car.'
DailyMail.com obtained exclusive video and pictures of the immediate aftermath following Thursday night's murder in Long Island City
A witness told DailyMail.com that police officers were forced to smash Bryan's car windows to get him out of the vehicle and into a waiting ambulance
Bryan's murder is the second in Long Island City this year and the third homicide since 2020, with the once-industrial Queens neighborhood having undergone widespread gentrification in recent years.
The NYPD's CrimeStat report for Long Island City shows a neighborhood where safety has improved over the last 30 years. In 1990, there were 16 murders in Long Island City alone; three years later, that number dropped to 10.
By 1998, the NYPD reported five murders in the neighborhood during that one-year period, dropping again to three in 2001. Only two homicides were reported last year.
Meanwhile, murders in the Queens neighborhood dropped 87.5 percent from 1990 to 2020.
The once-industrial and manufacturing epicenter of the city has blossomed into a sought-after neighborhood in New York City, with major changes between 2016 and 2017.
A 2017 report by SpareRoom found that Long Island City became the most expensive neighborhood that year, beating out 19 other neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Just three months prior in the fourth quarter of 2016, it ranked 11th out of the 20 most expensive neighborhoods in New York.
NYPD respond to the scene of a fatal shooting in Long Island City on Thursday night
Pictured: Authorities tend to 50-year-old Joseph Bryan, who was sitting in his car on Orchard Street around 11:20 pm Thursday, when he was fatally shot multiple times in the torso
Caution tape could be seen blocking off the street where Bryan was fatally shot while parked in his car
While average rent costs in the neighborhood have leveled out, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Long Island City, NY is currently $2,939, according to Apartments.com.
The neighborhood made headlines back in early 2019 after Amazon canceled plans to move its second national headquarters to Long Island City.