Bullet-Ridden Car Causes Unease in Carroll Gardens

In a tree-lined section of Brooklyn known for its family atmosphere, a parked car has been causing quite a stir.

Since Thanksgiving week, a luxurious sport utility vehicle disfigured by bullet holes has been blocking a bus stop on Union Street in the Carroll Gardens section of Brooklyn, several local residents and store owners said.

The driver's side seats of the Audi Q7 are draped with black and yellow plastic, the rear window is shattered, and it appears that some dried blood is on the back seat. The four bullet holes on the driver's side back door are marked with police evidence labels.

"Something like this doesn't make residents feel safe," Nate Shaw, 38, who had previously noticed the vehicle while walking with his 4-year-old daughter, said. "My two sons would probably think it's cool, but I think having to explain it got shot up would be worrisome," a 40-year-old carpenter from Carroll Gardens, Greg Paul, said. "Why doesn't the police department have more space to store shot vehicles?"

Cars that are confiscated for evidence by the police are generally moved from the precinct where a crime occurred within three days and brought to police impound lots, police sources said. There are two large lots in the College Point and Whitestone sections of Queens, the sources said.

However, the bullet-riddled vehicle, which was first reported by Curbed.com on Monday, appears to have slipped through the cracks.

"An officer drove it into the spot and it has been there for at least two weeks," the manager of Francesco Pizzeria, which has large windows facing onto the street where the car is parked, Anthony Caravello, said.

The vehicle was confiscated in connection with a homicide investigation, police said.

On October 6, an unknown number of suspects riding in the Audi shot at Andre Garcia in front of 66 Sullivan St. in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, which shares a police precinct with Carroll Gardens.

Garcia, 24, who was shot multiple times in the stomach, was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. Another man, whom investigators believe is connected to the shooting, checked himself into Long Island City Hospital with a bullet wound to the stomach.

No suspects have been arrested in the shooting, police said.

In addition to being an eyesore, some residents were angry that the car was parked at a bus stop. "If my car was there, it would be towed in 24 hours," Mr. Shaw said.

The vehicle, parked less than a block from the 76th police precinct, was going to be moved to a department facility by the end of the day, a spokesman for the police department, Chief Michael Collins, said the delay in moving it was unusual, he said.