QUEENS, NY – The Queens District Attorney, Melinda Katz, announced that Thomas Abreu, a 25-year-old Brooklyn resident, was arraigned on Monday on charges including murder and five counts of attempted murder.
Abreu is alleged to have gone on a shooting spree while riding a scooter, killing an 86-year-old man and wounding two others in Queens.
Abreu, who resides on Elton Street in Brooklyn, was arraigned on a 14-count indictment which includes charges of murder in the second degree, five counts of attempted murder in the second degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, three counts of attempted assault in the first degree, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant ordered Abreu to return to court on September 26. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.
According to the charges, on July 8, at approximately 11:26 a.m., Abreu was captured on video surveillance and witnessed by an eyewitness riding a scooter, shooting 86-year-old Hamod Saeidi in the back on 108th Street and Jamaica Avenue in Richmond Hill.
Saeidi was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Moments later, Abreu shot at two pedestrians and a driver of a parked minivan, with the latter currently in serious condition at a local hospital. He was arrested later that day after a foot pursuit by NYPD officers.