A 78-year-old man died after he was hit by a stray bullet just paces from his Bronx home, police said Friday.
Edgar Spence was on Alexander Ave. near E. 135th St., outside of an apartment building at NYCHA’s Mitchel Houses in Mott Haven at about 10:30 p.m. when shots were fired nearby, cops said.
A stray bullet hit Spence in the torso. EMS raced the senior to Lincoln Hospital, but he couldn’t be saved.
Spence lived in the Mitchel Houses, down the block from where he was shot, cops said.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the shooting that led to Spence’s death. No other injuries were reported.
An NYPD spokesman confirmed that Spence was an “unintended target” of the gunman, who ran off and remained on the loose Friday.
Cops were scouring surveillance footage in the area as they tracked the shooter down.
In October, a massive gas explosion ripped the corner off a 20-story NYCHA apartment building in the Mitchel Houses, sending bricks and debris raining down on the street below, officials said.
Workers were “conducting a routine safety check” on the boilers when the explosion happened and the chimney collapsed, a NYCHA spokesman said at the time.
The blast destroyed a chimney connected to the boiler room that ran all the way up the corner of the brick building, FDNY officials said.