Mount Vernon bystander killed in NYPD shooting

MOUNT VERNON — A 61-year-old bystander who was shot Friday afternoon when an undercover NYPD investigation "went awry" was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center  in the Bronx early Saturday, officials at the New York City Police Department said.

Police said Felix Kumi, of Bedford Avenue in Mount Vernon, was standing behind a suspect in an illegal gun investigation when he was struck twice by an undercover officer from the NYPD Firearms Investigation Unit near Beekman and Tecumseh avenues. He was pronounced dead at 12:55 a.m.

Kumi, a father of two, drove a bus for the Mount Vernon school district for the past 10 years, said his daughter, Rachel Kumi, 25, as she sat with friends outside her building Saturday, some three blocks from the shooting scene.

"We're doing the best we can for the type of situation this is," she said. "It's a travesty that this happened."

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She said she learned her father had died from her mother.

"He was kind and loving and concerned; very generous," she said. "If you ever needed anything, my father would never say no."

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton released a statement expressing "profound sorrow and sympathy" to Kumi's family.

The suspect, Alvin Smothers, 37, was shot three times and rushed to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

A New York City Police Department spokesman said Sunday that Smothers is charged so far as a fugitive from justice in Westchester County. Smothers has not yet been officially charged in the shooting because he's in the hospital, but is accused of pointing a gun at the undercover officer's head, setting off the incident, Sgt. Lee Jones said.

A second suspect who fled the scene, Jeffrey Aristy, 28, of the Bronx, was later arrested and charged with two felony counts of first-degree criminal sale of a firearm and four of second-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance. Neither Aristy nor the undercover officer were injured, police said.

Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Terrance Raynor said Friday that the shooting occurred "when things went awry."

Police said Aristy contacted the undercover officer Friday and told him he had guns for sale. The officer drove to the Bronx and picked up Aristy, who instructed him to drive to Mount Vernon. He told the officer to pull over at Beekman and Tecumseh avenues, where the Smothers entered the car and put a gun to the officer's head. Smothers demanded money, which the undercover gave him.

Aristy and Smothers then fled. The officer notified his backup unit and confronted the second man.

"As the officer attempted to stop the suspect, the suspect pointed his gun towards the officer," NYPD officials said in statement. "The officer discharged his firearm several times, striking suspect number two three times in the torso."

Raynor said stray bullets struck the window of a nearby house, two cars, and Renzo's Auto Body shop at East Third Street and Tecumseh Avenue.

Police described the man's weapon as "a replica of a large caliber gun," which was recovered at the scene.

NYPD Chief of Department James O’Neill said at the news conference that officers had bought numerous firearms from Aristy.

Reporter Steve Lieberman contributed to this report.