Photo Courtesy of NYPD
The person of interest was seen near the victim’s building on several occasions in the weeks prior to last month’s incident.
By Michael V. Cusenza
The City Police Department recently released a sketch of a person of interest wanted in connection with a bombing last month that left a Springfield Gardens man dead.
According to police and published reports, a package detonated in the hands of George Wray, 73, as he tried to open it in front of his 229th Street home on Friday, July 28, around 4:10 p.m. Wray, a Jamaican immigrant, suffered severe burns over 80 percent of his body; he was removed to Nassau University Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries on Tuesday, Aug. 1. George Wray leaves behind a wife and a son.
The cylindrical package bomb was left on the porch of the two-family house. According to the New York Daily News, police sources indicated that the intended target was a Bloods gang member who rented an apartment in Wray’s building.
According to investigators, the person of interest in the sketch had been seen near the site of the explosion several times in the weeks before the incident.
He is described as a black man, 30 to 35 years old, 5-foot-11, 160 pounds, with dark-colored eyes and a mustache.
Anyone with information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, (888) 57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit info by logging onto NYPDCrimestoppers.com or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All correspondences are strictly confidential.