A few more details have emerged about Eric Collins, the man arrested for shooting an arrow that hit a woman in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. The victim, Denise Delgado-Brown, had been dropping off her friends at a nursing home which is next to Collins' home (he and his pregnant wife were moving into, to care for his elderly grandfather). Naturally, Collins was questioned after the incident occurred on Sunday, but didn't mention anything about it. But a few days later, the cops found a hole in his home's fence.
According to the Post, Collins, 27, was "showing off" when he took out his bow and arrows. Aiming for "a mound of dirt in the yard but [he] missed, and the 30-inch projectile sailed straight through a fence separating the property from a neighboring senior center and improbably hit Denise Delgado-Brown in the stomach nearly 50 yards away." The Daily News, which says that the arrow traveled 10-15 yards to hit Delgado-Brown, quotes a police source, "You can't see the nursing home from his driveway, but if you stand there you can hear people talking. If you don't hear someone screaming it's because you don't want to hear it."
Collins entered a not guilty plea to the assault and reckless endangerment charges. Police, who said Collins seemed nervous and anxious when questioned for a third time, did find other arrows at his home—and reportedly spoke to the friend who witnessed the archery attempt. Plus, prosecutors are saying that Collins told investigators, "I heard about the woman that got hit. [A friend who is a lawyer] said I should stay out of it." Delgado-Brown was not impressed with Collins' cowardice, "If it was an accident he would have come over to me and asked if I was all right. I would have forgiven him... He didn't care that he almost took my life. Because he ran, this is what he got."
And an interesting fact from the Times: Collins' mother was one of the Collins quadruplets of the Bronx.
