Michael Lopez, 27, was taken into custody on Friday morning in connection with the June 17 shooting
A Harlem gang member with five prior arrests including one as recent as 2020 has been arrested for the Bronx shooting last week that nearly killed a brother and sister aged five and 13.
Michael Lopez, 27, was taken into custody on Friday morning in connection with the June 17 shooting.
He was processed at the 44th Precinct in the Bronx, yards from where the shooting took place.
Police records viewed by DailyMail.com reveal he is a member of the Make it Happen Boyz gang – a street gang in Harlem.
His priors include attempted murder, robbery, conspiracy, criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful disclosure of intimate images but somehow, he was not in custody.
It’s unclear why he was not in custody or what the status of any of those other criminal cases is.
Police say he Lopez is the gunman who was filmed running behind Hassan Wright and opening fire, shooting him in the back and legs before fleeing.
What was most horrifying about the shooting was that the gunman paid no regard to 13-year-old Mia and five-year-old Christian Toribio, who were walking home from the store and got caught beneath Wright’s feet after he barreled into them while trying to flee.
Miraculously, neither of the kids were struck but they were directly in the line of fire.
The shooting outraged New Yorkers who are growing tired of the escalating crime across the city.
Michael Lopez, 27, was taken into custody on Friday morning in connection with the June 17 shooting. The gunman was filmed running behind Hassan Wright and opening fire, shooting him in the back and legs before fleeing (above left). Right, an image police circulated of the suspect afterwards to try to catch him
NYPD officials say they are planning a press conference for later in the day where they will share more details.
He was arrested after they issued surveillance camera footage of the gunman in a subway station. It’s not clear yet if that is how he was identified.
It was still light and the parents watched from the window of their first floor apartment – which is 1,000 feet away as the kids walked down the street hand-in-hand, as they do whenever the kids go to the store for them.
The apartment is just feet away from the 170th street subway station and is next to a park.
It was busy with local families and residents.
The parents were watching when the gunman – who has not been identified – started running towards the kids on Sheridan Avenue, pointing at his target Hassan Wright, who was also behind the children. Hassan started running and tried to escape but instead he barreled into the brother and sister, knocking them to the ground.
NYC Mayoral frontrunner Eric Adams was among those who called for him to be arrested.
Christian, five, and Mia, 13 at the Yankees game on Sunday. They were hosted by the Yankees after being visited at home by local politicians. The kids were in high spirits despite having narrowly avoided death on Thursday. They smiled and waved for cameras from one of the Yankees’ executive boxes
Picture shown: Maria Pabloto Deli and Grocery bodega where the shooting occurred
The number of shootings across the city is spiraling out of control. There were 33 shootings in just seven days between June 7 and 13th. Over the course of 28 years, there were 146 and there have been 634 this year
‘We need to catch this b****d. We need to catch him. We need to get him. He needs to be off our streets,’ he said.
The gang Lopez belongs to is one of the largest in New York City.
Its members are regularly arrested in raids in Harlem. The gang goes by the abbreviation MHB.
Its members are all residents of Manhattanville, where Lopez is from.
One former member previously told Gothamist anonymously: ‘It was never really a gang. MHB, the Make It Happen Boys, whatever. It was just Manhattanville.
‘We didn’t have no colors or no one in charge. It was just us. It was just living in the projects.’