79-Year-Old Man Shot Dead in Brooklyn, Stray Bullet Might Have Killed Him

Police responding to a call about a 79-year-old man found shot in the neck in his Brooklyn Apartment have not been able to find a motive for the crime.

NY Daily News notes that James Jackson was discovered by his girlfriend, who was in the other room. The blind woman turned to a neighbor when her efforts to wake him up proved fruitless. She called 911 and alerted authorities about her boyfriend being unresponsive.

“She said she couldn't wake him up. [...] He was lying on the couch slumped over. It’s horrible,” says Joyce, the neighbor who refuses to give her last name to the press.

When first responders arrived at the Gates Avenue apartment in Bushwick, at 2:25 a.m., Jackson was still alive.

The victim of the shooting was immediately transported to Woodhull Hospital, but medical staff were unable to save him, reports NBC New York.

As the building superintendent has reported no signs of forced entry, police believe he might have been killed by a stray bullet.

Reports indicate that the apartment door was locked, and no other people were in the apartment at the time.

However, Jackson has an extensive record dating back to the 1990s. He was arrested nine times, and some of the charges were related to drugs and forgery.

Police are yet to identify a suspect in the shooting, and preliminary investigations have ruled out his girlfriend as the culprit.

Jackson has been described as a good person by his neighbors, who all claimed that he had no enemies.

“He was a good person. [...] If you needed something, he'd always give it to you,” 47-year-old Eric Turner tells reporters.

“Why would anyone harm him? It would take him 20 minutes to walk down the block,” Vaughn Grandy adds.