In the early morning hours of September 30, 2020, 43-year-old Bertha Arriaga was struck and killed by a stray bullet that pierced her third-floor window in her Jackson Heights, Queens apartment. A mother of three who had lived in the building for 16 years after immigrating from Mexico 25 years earlier, Arriaga was awakened by noise on the street and looked out the window shortly before 1 a.m. The bullet struck her in the neck; her 14-year-old son found her and her husband attempted CPR, but the wound was fatal. Reportedly she was not the intended target.

Surveillance footage showed two men attempting to steal a motorized scooter on the sidewalk outside the building; as they fled, one of the men fired a shot over his shoulder without aiming. A public tip led police to identify one suspect. Police arrested 31-year-old Issam Elabbar of Queens and charged him with murder, manslaughter, and illegal weapons possession. Does anyone who lived in Jackson Heights at the time recall activity on that block or have information that could help clarify what happened that night?