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Flatbush-Brooklyn husband left paralyzed after hit by stray bullet walking wife to store

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Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor
Pictured, Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor with wife, Sam. Image via social media.
Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor
Pictured, Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor with wife, Sam. Image via social media.

Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor left paralyzed & will likely never walk again after getting caught in NYC gang violence while escorting wife to Flatbush store. 

An innocent bystander who was shot in broad daylight in Brooklyn on Wednesday has been left paralyzed for life after a bullet struck his spine while he walked with his wife to buy toothpaste from a nearby store.

The shooting is one of several incidents of gun violence in NYC, where homicides surged by 29 per cent to 244 from January 1 to August 2 from the same period last year. 

The five boroughs have also seen an 84.6 per cent rise in shooting victims to 1,017 during those dates compared with the same period in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Sam Metcalfe, 33, survived the shooting while an 18-year-old man, Malcolm Amede, the intended target, died near the intersection of Ocean and Woodruff avenues in Flatbush – just south of Prospect Park.

Amede, a suspected gang member, was believed to be the shooter’s intended target. Ironically at the time of his shooting death, Amede was on his way to a memorial for another gun violence victim, Paul Pinkney, who had just welcomed a baby boy two weeks before his untimely death, family members told the nydailynews.

Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor
Pictured, Sam Metcalfe Brooklyn shooting survivor with wife, Sam.

Shooting victim had insisted on accompanying wife to store

GoFundMe account started to help Metcalfe and his wife, Sabrina, described how the tragic events unfolded.

‘On Wednesday, August 19, 2020, Sabrina and her husband Sam left their Brooklyn apartment to go to the store and get some toothpaste,’ the organizer of the crowdfunding effort, Krysta Zagorski, posted.

‘She told him he didn’t need to come but he wanted to hold the umbrella for her because it was raining and the umbrella was broken.

‘While crossing an intersection less than five minutes from their building, shots rang out and Sam was hit.

‘The intended victim (not Sam) was also shot multiple times and died as a result.’

Zagorski continued: ‘Almost immediately, Sam couldn’t feel his legs. We now know that the bullet hit his kidney and stopped when it hit his spine.

‘They removed his kidney but his condition is too fragile to attempt to remove the bullet just yet.

Long road ahead for recovery

‘Doctors are still trying to stop the bleeding and Sam will likely never walk again.’

Five people have been shot near this intersection in the last week, according to Zagorsky. Three of those who have been shot were killed.

‘Sam and Sabrina have a long road ahead of them,’ she writes.

‘Medical expenses will come later but, right now, I need help supporting them in any way possible.

‘Neither are working as Sam fights for his life and she keeps vigil over him.

‘His journey to recovery will be long and, during that time, I don’t want either of them to have to worry about anything else.’

Unidentified gunman aimed gun from the driver’s seat of BMW SUV

The GoFundMe campaign has exceeded its goal of $40,000. As of early Saturday night, it has raised $55,496.

‘THANK YOU,’ Zagorsky wrote.

‘I cannot tell you how much your support means. It’s a testament to how loved Sam and Sabrina are and how truly incredible people can be.’

Amede was fatally shot in the chest and arms, according to the New York Post. Law enforcement sources believe he is a member of the Crips and that the shooting was related to gang warfare.

Surveillance footage released from the scene on Friday shows an unidentified gunman aiming a gun from the driver’s seat of a BMW SUV just before 3:30pm.

Video from the scene shows the aftermath of the shooting. Bystanders are seen tending to Metcalfe and assuring him he was going to be OK.

Cops found a gun at the scene that may have been dropped by one of the victims.  

‘This neighborhood is becoming a shooting gallery. Why won’t it just stop?’ one resident asked AM New York.

The shooting tragedy comes as the city endures a summer of soaring violent crime. Heat waves, high unemployment, a deeply moribund economy and the grinding misery of social distancing restrictions related to the ongoing coronavirus have all contributed to an atmosphere in which tempers spin out of control, and verbal disputes between strangers often turn violent. 

NYC shootings 2020
In the last five years the number of shootings fell to a low of 754 in 2018, but is now rising

NYC shootings on dramatic rise

As well, gang violence and turf wars have contributed to the shootings, police say. 

Last month, shooting incidents across the city were up 177 percent compared to last year. 

Murders were up 59 percent for the month, burglaries rose 31 percent, and auto thefts increased 53 percent. 

At least three people died and 12 were wounded overnight Thursday and into early Friday morning after a night of shooting mayhem across New York City, where violent crime continues to surge out of control.

The rising spate of violence parallels the recent cutting of $1 billion from the NYPD’s $6billion annual budget after NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio facing pressure from activists in response to police brutality across the nation. 

The mayor has also told of the large number of inmates being released from Rikers Island due to the pandemic, declaring that city jails had the lowest inmate population since World War II. 

Police unions have blamed bail reform, police budget cuts, and anti-cop sentiment for the rise in violent crime. 

Last week, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the city’s largest police union, took the unprecedented step of endorsing President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has blamed police themselves for the rising crime, saying they have done ‘very little’ to come up with reform plans. 

He also threatened to pull funding from up to 500 departments across the state if they do not have reform plans in place by April 2021.

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