Brother of NYC sanitation worker’s alleged shooter charged for threatening to shoot up home of victim’s daughter
The brother of a gunman who shot a city sanitation worker sparked the wild confrontation by threatening to shoot the apartment windows of the victim’s teenage daughter, prosecutors have charged.
Andrew Tracey, 20, was arraigned late Friday on attempted murder and other charges for his role in the Hell’s Kitchen shooting and was ordered held on $100,000 bail. Tracey’s brother, Elijah, remains at large.
The bloody Thursday episode started in the apartment of Tracey’s teen girlfriend, prosecutors said.
He pulled out a gun, threatened to shoot out the windows, then shouted, “You thinking I’m joking? I’m going to light this s--- up!” according to a criminal complaint.
The teen pleaded with him to put the gun away, and he stormed into a bedroom, where she could hear him say, “It’s jammed,” according to the complaint: cops later found a bullet on the floor.
The teen called her father who headed over to W. 52nd St. near 10th Ave., bringing another sanitation worker with him, police sources said.
Tracey, meanwhile, called his brother Elijah and asked to be picked up — all the while arguing with his girlfriend on the street, according to assistant district attorney Sidney Balman III. When Elijah Tracey arrived, he started to punch the teen, Balman said.
Her dad showed up to confront Andrew Tracey, and they fought, with the girl’s father quickly getting the better of him, prosecutors charged.
Video shows the sanitation worker dad throwing Andrew Tracey to the ground and repeatedly kicking him, while screaming “Don’t do that! Don’t do that!” to Tracey’s brother Elijah.
Andrew Tracey grabbed a gun and some other items from his gun and chambered a round, Balman said at his arraignment. Elijah Tracey then took the gun from his brother and fired three times, striking the girl’s dad in the pelvis and leg, Balman said.
The shooting is captured on cell phone video, recorded from a nearby apartment.
Andrew Tracey hopped into the dad’s car and drove off, then crashed it around the corner, Balman said. He got into his brother’s car, and the two sped off. At some point, he threw the gun into a river, Balman said.
Afterward, the teen got threatening messages, warning her about “snitching,” while she was at the hospital, prosecutors said.
Tracey remains held on Rikers Island, and is due back in court Wednesday.
