The city's wild teen population is rapidly spiraling out of control, and yet the guv'ment still refuses to issue hunting licenses letting citizens help thin the herds. And so one Marine Park man, fed up with the city's failed teen management policies, was forced to violate the law when he allegedly opened fire with a semi-automatic hunting rifle on a pack of rowdy teens ripping open garbage bags outside his home on Saturday night. Two teens were hospitalized after the shooting: a 17-year-old was struck in the neck and a 14-year old was treated for fragment wounds in his arm and leg—both injuries were non-life threatening. The Post reports that 21-year-old Yana Kaprovskaya, who lives on the block, was also hit by a fragment and treated and released from Beth Israel Kings Highway.
Neighbors say that before the shooting, the teenagers were knocking over the garbage and kicking cars parked in driveways on the quiet block. Some residents yelled at them to attempt to shoo them away, and Thomas Dunikowski, 30, allegedly got into a scuffle with them. After that, police say he went back inside his house, took out his unlicensed Bushmaster 5.56 mm, and open fire. Kaprovskaya's brother Dmitry tells the Times that 10 shots were fired, and that Dunikowski had spent the evening drinking at his parents' house next door.
"There were kids on bikes all over the place — then I heard, ‘Pop! Pop! Pop!’" one neighbor tells the Post. "It sounded like firecrackers, and with how much smoke there was, I thought it was firecrackers." Having bagged his limit, Dunikowski reportedly put away the rifle and went to sleep. But if it's not one thing it's another—first the wild teens are keeping you up, then the cops.
When police arrived at the residence, where Dunikowski lives with his wife and baby boy, she tried to cover for him and say he didn't open fire on the teens. But a source tells the Post that after cops told her they could take her child away if she was lying, she reportedly gave her husband up. Dunikowski was arrested on charges including assault, reckless endangerment and resisting arrest. It's unclear if any of the teens will be charged for vandalizing the garbage.
