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Victim Eric Assanah was 21 years old.
By Michael V. Cusenza
Two men have been charged with murder and burglary in the shooting death of a man killed on Sunday afternoon in South Ozone Park as he lay beside his sleeping girlfriend, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown and published reports.
Jonathan Chan, 21, was arraigned on Monday on a criminal complaint charging him with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree burglary. According to court records, Chan was remanded to Department of Correction custody on Rikers Island.
Chan’s next court date is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 16. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Shamar Daley, also 21, was arrested on Tuesday. As of Wednesday evening, he was awaiting arraignment.
According to the charges, Chan and Daley, along with two other unapprehended suspects, unlawfully entered a two-story dwelling on 135th Place in Jamaica shortly after noon on Sunday, December 11, 2016, and made their way to the first-floor bedroom where the victim, 21-year-old Eric Assanah, was in bed with his girlfriend.
Chan fired once, Brown said, hitting Assanah in the torso. He died at the scene. Chan, Daley, and the other two suspects fled the location. Chan, who allegedly had threatened to kill Assanah hours earlier unless he received a sum of cash, was arrested shortly after the shooting. According to published reports the dispute between Chan and Assanah stemmed from an amount of stolen cash.
Brown noted that the investigation is ongoing.
“This is another senseless act of gun violence. The defendant allegedly unlawfully entered the victim’s residence with three other unapprehended individuals, crept into the first-floor bedroom and shot and killed the 21-year-old man,” Brown added. “The victim’s girlfriend awoke to see her companion bleeding to death as the four men fled the scene. This was truly a nightmare come true for this young woman.”
