Man arrested in Harlem fatal shooting

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Police have released a new sketch of a suspect in the murder of an innocent bystander, killed in Harlem amid a rash of shootings last weekend.
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HARLEM, Manhattan (WABC) -- A hospitalized patient admitted to firing the shot that killed a 61-year-old Harlem grandmother as she watched a game of dominoes two blocks from her home last summer.

Abraham Vah, of Queens, was arrested Tuesday and charged murder, criminal use of firearm and criminal possession of a weapon.

He has 12 prior arrests.

According to the New York City Police Department, 25-year-old Vah was being treated at Beth Israel Hospital when he started telling staff that he had "information about a homicide."

Vah then told detectives that he fired the stray bullet that killed Odessa Simms while shooting at someone who had robbed him, police said.

On Aug. 20, Simms, 61, was outside with her husband on Lenox Avenue and 144th Street playing cards.

Investigators said her husband went to bed and minutes later shots rang out. Two bullets hit Simms, including one in the neck, and she died.