Baseball prospect shot in Yonkers – The Journal News | LoHud.com
Yonkers Police Department holds a news conference about the shooting of a young man in a Burger King parking lot, Sept. 18, 2015. (Video by Tania Savayan/The Journal News)
YONKERS A Yonkers baseball prospect who was drafted by the Oakland A’s was shot in the head and critically wounded in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant early Friday.
Mike Nolan, 23, a graduate of Saunders Trades and Technical High School, was shot twice in the parking lot of the Burger King at 826 Central Ave. just after 12:30 a.m.
Police were on the scene Friday morning, combing the parking lot of the restaurant, which is near an exit ramp of the state Thruway, across from the Cross County Shopping Center.
Nolan was taken by ambulance to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
Investigators were taking pictures of a black, four-door Mercedes with its driver’s side door open and Burger King bags strewn on the ground.
Yonkers police Chief of Detectives Timothy Hodges said five or six shots were fired at the Mercedes, hitting Nolan in the head and torso. Hodges said Nolan was in “extremely critical condition” at the hospital.
“At this point, we believe he was an innocent victim,” Hodges said. “He’s been a friend of the city of Yonkers and a person of high regard.”
Map:Yonkers shooting
Hodges called the gun violence a “senseless tragedy.”
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Police believe a white or pale yellow 2000-07 two-door Honda described by witnesses may be involved in the incident. Surveillance video and license-plate readers in the area are being viewed, Hodges said. Police were looking into a possible connection to a dispute that occurred days earlier.
Several witnesses were interviewed by police Friday morning.
A nearby resident said young people often drag race down the service road that runs parallel to the Thruway.
Police examine a car at the scene of the shooting of Mike Nolan in the Burger King parking lot on Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, Sept. 18, 2015. (Video by GM Productions)
At the family’s home, Michael Maher, Nolan’s grandfather, told The Journal News: “We’re just waiting. They told us there is nothing we can do but wait.”
He said his grandson was breathing on his own.
The family’s brick-front ranch house has an Oakland A’s sticker on the front door. It is decorated with numerous American flags, and a handwritten sign in the window notes International Police Day Sept. 12. In front is a basketball hoop.
Saunders basketball coach Anthony Nicodemo, said he had Mike Nolan and his two brothers, Joe and Nick, on his team.
“We’re heartbroken,” he said in a brief phone conversation from Jacobi, where he and others gathered to support the family. “We just can’t believe this happened.”
He saw Nolan’s family Friday night at a game in which Nick played.
“This is a family that has done so much for the community,” he said. “I’m hoping the community rallies around them.”
Chuck Alben, Nolan’s former coach at Saunders, said he was too stunned to talk when reached by phone Friday morning.
“I care for Mike very much,” he said. “A tremendously talented player. Wonderful family, they were at every game.”
Lefty pitcher Nolan, who stands 6-foot-7, played for Oklahoma City University and was selected in the 18th round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft (552nd overall) by the Oakland Athletics to fulfill a lifelong dream. He had previously undergone Tommy John surgery, a common procedure for baseball pitchers that reconstructs the ligament in the elbow by attaching it to a tendon from another part of the body. Most recently, he was pitching for the minor league Arizona Athletics, but has been on the restricted list since June 2014.
Friends on Twitter are using the hashtags #pray4MikeNolan and #pray4Mike to send well wishes and concerns.
Yonkers police investigate shooting of baseball star Mike Nolan in the parking lot of Burger King on Central Park Avenue in Yonkers, Sept. 19, 2015 (Video by Jane Lerner/The Journal News)