Four killed in Bronx and Brooklyn on Christmas Eve shootings

The Christmas Eve quiet was shattered in New York City by four slayings, resulting from three separate shootings, in Brooklyn and the Bronx.

In the most lethal of the incidents, assailants gunned down Oliver Maitland, 16, and Robert Grant, 19, after they left the home of Grant's mother at 89 Lefferts Place in Bedford Stuyvesant around 9:45 p.m., police said.

Officers from the 88th precinct found them dead in the street in front of 121 Lefferts Place. Grant was shot once in the head, as was Maitland, who also had wounds to the torso and arm, police said.

In East New York, a 26-year-old man was found shot in the head just after 8 p.m.. The man, whose name police have withheld pending family notification, was pronounced dead at Brookdale University Hospital & Medical Center, after he was found at 1266 Sutter Ave. Police were searching for suspects.

Gunfire rang out in the Bronx around 8:15 p.m. when police said an unknown assailant or assailants fatally shot Orlando Clarke, 26, after he pulled his 2003 silver Nissan Altima into a neighbor's driveway at 3239 Fenton Ave. His car was stopped and several shots were fired into the windshield, police said, striking Clarke at least once in the torso. He was pronounced dead at Jacobi Medical Center. Police said officers found half a dozen 9 mm. shell casings on the street. No arrests were reported in any of the shootings as police investigated.

By BY ERIK GERMAN Copyright © 2007, AM New York

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