{"id":256079,"date":"2025-09-26T12:21:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256079\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T12:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:21:24","slug":"nypd-probing-whether-gunman-who-ambushed-killed-21-year-old-at-her-nyc-apartment-was-her-abusive-ex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256079\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD probing whether gunman who ambushed, killed 21-year-old at her NYC apartment was her abusive ex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police are investigating whether the savage \u201cmystery\u201d gunman who ambushed and killed a 21-year-old woman at her Queens apartment <\/a>was her abusive ex-boyfriend from South Carolina. <\/p>\n

Dashanna Donovan was found lying face down in a pool of blood around 9:20 p.m. Friday with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body and head in East Elmhurst,\u00a0NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said in an update Thursday.<\/p>\n

A savage \u201cmystery\u201d gunman who sprayed multiple rounds before fatally striking a 21-year-old Dashanna Donovan in the head could have been her abusive ex-boyfriend from South Carolina. DCPI<\/p>\n

Video captured her \u201changing out\u201d and sitting in an open courtyard in the back of her building near 96th Street and 31st Avenue, when she suddenly looked up and saw the gunman bolting toward her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems just from her reaction, she knows who the perpetrator is. The perpetrator has his left arm extended, holding a gun,\u201d Kenny told reporters. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe tries to run. She tries to run so frantically away from the scene, she actually runs out of her own shoes. She tries to get into the basement, where the perpetrator catches up to her and shoots her multiple times in the head, causing her demise,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Video surveillance captured the gunman wearing a \u201cvery distinctive Under Armor blue hoodie\u201d in the area as early as 7 p.m., Kenny said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have him basically walking back and forth in the 90s in Jackson Heights, from Astoria Boulevard to Northern Boulevard, just walking the neighborhood, when\u00a0suddenly he pounces at 9:20 p.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the shooting, he was seen on a bus and a train back into Manhattan, where he did not pay his fare at the Canal Street station, cops said. <\/p>\n

Video captured her \u201changing out\u201d and sitting in an open courtyard in the back of her building, when she suddenly looked up and saw the gunman bolting toward her. Brigitte Stelzer\/copyphoto<\/p>\n

\u201cSo all indications are, you know, from Queens, [he] made his way back to Lower Manhattan, and then we\u2019re still tracking video from there,\u201d the NYPD official said. <\/p>\n

After working with Donovan\u2019s family, investigators were led to her ex-boyfriend, whom she dated while living in South Carolina, Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Donovan moved to the Big Apple just six months ago to live with her grandmother and cousin and escape an abusive relationship with her ex.<\/p>\n

He is wanted for domestic violence in South Carolina. At some point, the pair worked together at a Walmart, police added.<\/p>\n

Cops said they have identified a person of interest, but have not yet confirmed it to be her ex-boyfriend, noting they do not have probable cause at this time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a possibility [that it\u2019s the boyfriend]. We\u2019re not taking that off the table, but it\u2019s not confirmed,\u201d Kenny said.<\/p>\n

She hadn\u2019t filed any complaints about her boyfriend in New York, authorities confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard she saw the person and she ran, so it\u2019s definitely someone she knew,\u201d her mom Helena Hypolite previously told The Post by phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho? We don\u2019t know.\u00a0 It\u2019s definitely a mystery,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cops say they have identified a person of interest \u2014 but have not yet confirmed it to be her ex-boyfriend \u2014 noting they do not have probable cause at this time. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hurt,\u201d the heartbroken mom said. \u201cI feel broken like a piece of me is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young victim\u2019s boss at a McDonald\u2019s where she worked called Donovan around 11 p.m. Friday to ask her to cover a shift on Saturday \u2014 but she was already dead.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>She worked at a McDonald\u2019s. Everybody said she was a great employee. She did the overnight shift there from 5 pm to 1 am,\u201d Kenny said.<\/p>\n

Donovan, who was born on the US Virgin Island of St. Thomas, loved dancing and her mother\u2019s chicken curry, her grieving mom recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer smile,\u201d the mom said when asked what she\u2019d miss most about her daughter. \u201cIt just brightened up the room. She was always funny; she liked to crack jokes.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1.800.799.SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are investigating whether the savage \u201cmystery\u201d gunman who ambushed and killed a 21-year-old woman at her Queens…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,4219,5416,32551,5248,27813,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,4413,3677,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-256079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-deaths","11":"tag-domestic-violence","12":"tag-metro","13":"tag-murders","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-queens","21":"tag-shootings","22":"tag-united-states","23":"tag-united-states-of-america","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","26":"tag-us","27":"tag-us-news","28":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115270574692237071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}