Bow attack in the Bronx: Woman shot in stomach by arrow on Riverdale street; cops search for shooter
BY Edgar Sandoval, Oren Yaniv and Bill Hutchinson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Sunday, March 15th 2009, 9:55 PM
Lombard for News
A 51-year-old woman was shot with an arrow after dropping off friends at Riverdale home Sunday.
Denise Delgado Brown was shot with an arrow.
Denise Delgado Brown was shot with an arrow.
A woman with "a heart for Jesus" was shot in the stomach Sunday by an errant arrow that came flying out of the Bronx sky as she was dropping off churchgoers at a nursing home.
Denise Delgado-Brown, 50, of Yonkers, clutched the shaft of the 30-inch long arrow that pierced her 2 inches above her bellybutton and screamed for her friends to call 911.
"They shot me with an arrow," Delgado-Brown moaned incredulously as she staggered behind her maroon Kia SUV and collapsed. "I thought it was a joke," said Olga Rivera, one of two women the victim was dropping off at the Frances Schervier Nursing Care Center in Riverdale when the bizarre incident occurred about 1:30 p.m. "She wanted to take it out, but I told her not to."
Cops raced to the nursing home on Independence Ave. and scoured nearby Henry Hudson Park, Seton Park and a wooded picnic area behind the nursing home, even using a helicopter to search from the air.
As night fell, the phantom archer remained on the loose.
Police said it appeared to be a random shooting and that Delgado-Brown was not necessarily a target, but that did little to calm the fears of locals.
"I leave here at 12 tonight. I'm gonna keep a strong lookout in case there's a maniac out there," said Ramon Madera, 59, who works at the nursing home. "I'm too young to die."
Delgado-Brown was taken by ambulance to St. Barnabas Hospital, where she underwent two hours of surgery to remove the arrow. She was in stable condition Sunday night. The black fiberglass arrow with yellow-feathered fletching had a blunted metal tip, suggesting it was for practice, cops said.
"It's a freak thing," said a police source.
The pointy projectile was facing downward when it struck Delgado-Brown, indicating it was descending after being fired in a high arch, a source said.
"I saw it happen," said Donna Hubbard, another passenger Delgado-Brown was dropping off. "The arrow came right at her. I was in disbelief."
Hubbard said she had worshiped with Delgado-Brown Sunday morning at the Yonkers Christian Assembly Church, where the victim sings in the choir.
Delgado-Brown had just stepped out of her car and popped open the rear hatch for Hubbard and Rivera to collect their belongings when she was shot.
"The arrow was sticking out of her a full arm's length," Hubbard said.
Longtime friend Randy Holdit, 53, said Delgado-Brown is a veteran officer at Yonkers Traffic Court who spends her spare time helping to feed the homeless and working with young girls at her church. "She has a heart for Jesus," Holdit said.
News of the incident came during the afternoon service at Yonkers Christian Assembly Church, Holdit said.
"We said a prayer for her," he said. "She did not deserve this. This is something that happened to a good person."
With Maria Clark, Alison Gendar, Bob Kappstatter, Erica Pearson and Simone Weichselbaum
