Man Charged For 2016 Harlem Shooting That Killed Bystander

HARLEM, NY — A man is facing murder charges for an August 2016 shooting that killed a bystander in a Harlem playground, police told Patch.

Abraham Vah, a 25-year-old Queens resident, was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder, criminal use of a firearm and criminal weapons possession, police said. Vah is accused of firing the bullet that killed 61-year-old Odessa Simms on August 20, police said.

Simms had been playing cards with her friends at Colonel Charles Young Playground on West 145th Street and Lenox Avenue when she was hit in the neck by a stray bullet, police told Patch. Simms was transported to Harlem Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The shooting occurred just before midnight when a fight broke out in the park. Simms was not involved in the fight, police said.

"She’s the best person in the world," Basil Simms, her husband, told the New York Times. "She loved to cook. She could make anything, and anything she made was good."

Photo by Patch