Multiple gunmen fired over a dozen shots at the Hells Angels' brand new clubhouse in the Bronx on Thursday night, just weeks after the notorious biker gang left their longtime East Village headquarters for quieter digs in Throggs Neck.
Police say they received a call about a shooting near 241 Longstreet Avenue at around 10:30 p.m. last night. Upon investigating, they recovered 14 shell casings in the vicinity of clubhouse, and observed damage to the exterior of the property—a recently restored brick building formerly used by the American Legion. No injuries were reported.
Footage from a neighbor's surveillance camera, posted to a local Community Board Facebook group, appears to show several shots ringing out, as a procession of motorcyclists ride along the residential street.
Witnesses saw the shooters fleeing the scene, possibly on motorcycles, a police source told Gothamist.
The Hells Angels' move to the Bronx had already stoked concerns from some neighbors, who worried about the group's unsavory reputation.
"It's not called the Guardian Angels [or] Heaven's Angels—it's the Hells Angels," Darrell Morrison, a local resident, told News12 Bronx on Thursday, hours before the shooting. "What's going to happen when I have 50 bikers here, if not more, making noise, having their parties, getting all messed up?"
The biker gang frequently courted trouble during their nearly five decades in Manhattan, including an improbably long-running saga over a precious bench, as well as a confrontation over a set of traffic cones that culminated in the shooting of a 25-year-old.
Supporters of the group, meanwhile, contend that the group's security presence turned the area around their former East 3rd Street home into "the safest block in New York"; some Bronx homeowners have even suggested the group's arrival could raise their property values.
The group sold the East Village clubhouse for $7.75 million to a developer, who plans to turn the building into upscale rental units by the end of this year. They purchased the Bronx property for a reported $1.25 million.
