A man and woman and the pitbull they were walking were gunned down in Washington Heights amid an “ongoing” beef with a neighbor over the dog, police sources said.
Jackie Billini, 57, and Levaughn Harvin 42, were “clearly targeted” when they were fatally shot outside Highbridge Park, near West 165th Street and Edgecombe Avenue around 6:30 p.m. Friday, one source said.
The woman was shot in the head and the neck, and the man was struck in the face and shoulder, sources said.
Sources said the killer — who remained on the lam Saturday afternoon — fired at least six shots.
The shooter also turned the gun on the dog, Zeus, killing the animal. The couple was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where they were both pronounced dead.
A second source told The Post the pitbull triggered the twisted bloodshed. “Supposedly, the perp lives in the same building. An ongoing dispute involving the dog.”
Billini, an analyst with the state court system in the Bronx, was previously targeted in a frightening home invasion in April, police said.
Just months ago, in the early morning hours of April 11, she was attacked in her apartment by an unhinged man wielding a hammer who knocked on her door, police said.
When Billini answered the knock and then tried to close the door on the “irate, screaming” visitor, the twisted intruder kicked it open, breaking the woman’s right arm, cops said. She was treated at Harlem Hospital. A 31-year-old man, Lenue Moore, who lives in the building was charged with assault and attempted burglary in the April incident, the NYPD said on Saturday.
Neighbors and longtime friends said that Billini had an ongoing feud with her neighbor, Moore, since he allegedly tried to kick her dog at some point late last year or early this year. Moore has been living at his mother’s apartment illegally, since the mother received HPD assistance, but lives in the house she bought in one of the Carolinas, they said.
The neighbors said Harvin is a nephew whom Billini asked to accompany her around the neighborhood as a bodyguard because she was scared of Moore.
Longtime friend Gissette Hernandez said of Billini: “She’s a good person, she’s never done nothing to nobody. You know what this whole case is about? It’s about the whole system. Another neighbor, Janet Santana, said “he was always problem.” He’s friends with “street people.”
She added that “everybody loved Jackie,” who would help anybody who needed it, especially the homeless.
The state office of Court Administration (OCA) confirmed Saturday afternoon that Billini was a long-time court employee “who spent many years in the administrative office of New York City Civil Court as an indispensable aid to the Administrative Judge.” More recently, she was assigned to Bronx Housing Court, one of our busiest courts. The court system and her colleagues are still processing her loss, and hope that her family finds some solace in that her presence will be sorely missed.”
Her colleagues were stunned. “Please join me In praying for the family and loved ones of Jackie Billini our beloved friend and co-worker [who] was taken from us last night,” posted Erica Sanchez to Facebook. Echoed Javier Minniti: “I can’t believe it…I spoke to her yesterday…my deepest condolences to her family.”