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A 29-year-old man was shot last September at the Surfside Motel.
By Forum Staff
Several city labor unions will be accepting aA Brooklyn man has been charged with shooting another man last September at the Surfside Motel in Howard Beach, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday.
Rawle Washington, 27, was arraigned on a seven-count complaint charging him with attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the second and third degree and aggravated criminal possession of a weapon.
According to the charges, shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2021, police responded to the Surfside Motel on Cross Bay Boulevard where a 29-year-old man had been shot. The victim was lying on ground in front of the motel entrance bleeding profusely from a gunshot wound to the leg. The man had also sustained a shot once in the buttocks and was taken to an area hospital for treatment.
According to the complaint, Washington was seen on video surveillance in a baseball cap, light-colored shirt and dark pants in the motel lobby just after 5 a.m. Video footage later that morning, around
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“Genetic testing on this evidence connects the defendant to this brutal crime,” DA Katz said.
10 a.m., showed Washington allegedly running after the victim and pointing a gun in the man’s direction and firing several times. Immediately after the shots rang out, the defendant allegedly turned and ran in the opposite direction toward the rear of the motel. Further video evidence showed Washington allegedly tossing the gun into the Shell Bank Basin, adjacent to the motel. Police recovered the weapon, as well as a light-colored shirt and the baseball cap near the scene.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner swabbed both the baseball cap and the shirt and recovered DNA from those items. A DNA profile of a male donor was created and a short time later law enforcement was notified that a match had been found—allegedly Washington. The defendant was arrested last week after a lengthy investigation into his whereabouts, Katz noted.
“As alleged, the defendant thought he made a clean getaway by tossing the gun in a nearby waterway and abandoning his hat and shirt as he fled—but he could not get away from his DNA,” Katz added. “Genetic testing on this evidence connects the defendant to this brutal crime.”
If convicted, Washington faces up to 25 years in prison.
