Above: The Mobil station on Cooley Place in Parksville, just off Route 17 in Sullivan County. Photo via Google Earth.
An argument over a women ended with a shooting in the parking lot of a Mobil gas station just off Route 17 in the Sullivan County hamlet of Parksville on Monday, Feb. 9, police and eyewitnesses say.
Around 6:30 p.m., a fight broke out in the parking lot of the Mobil station, which is located on a corner at Cooley Place. Sunny Raj Patel, the Mobil station's manager, was on duty at the time.
"There were about 20 cars here yesterday," Raj Patel said. "Something was going on."
Raj Patel heard shouts in what seemed to be a romantic argument involving a woman, her ex-boyfriend and her new boyfriend.
"Somebody yelled, 'Don't shoot me! Don't shoot!,'" Raj Patel said. Then he heard three shots.
Police say that Balsey DeWitt, a 30-year-old Livingston Manor man, shot multiple rounds at another Livingston Manor man who has not been identified.
"There were three bullets," Raj Patel said. "One went into the stomach and two went into the jacket."
There was no visible blood, Raj Patel said, because the victim immediately staunched the flow with his hands.
The New York State Police say that the shooting victim is in critical but stable condition at a local trauma center.
DeWitt has been charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal use of a firearm, according to a State Police press release.
The Mobil station is open for business as usual today.
The Daily Freeman and the Mid-Hudson News Network have more details.
