Shawn Peace Photo courtesy NYPD
A former Jamaica man was convicted last week of pumping bullets into a livery cab driver in South Ozone Park and targeting fast food restaurants and car services during a six-month robbery spree in 2010, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Shawn Peace, 25, who lived in Jamaica before moving to North Carolina, was found guilty of attempted murder, assault, robbery, and criminal possession of a weapon following a three-week jury trial before Queens County Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak.
“The defendant stands convicted of committing a series of serious felonies, including the attempted murder of a livery cab drivers and then the shooting of a fast food restaurant employee, during a string of armed robberies,” Brown said in a prepared statement. “He has proven himself to be a menace to others and deserves the maximum sentence allowed by law.”
Peace, who has been held in jail in lieu of bail since his arrest in January 2011, faces more than 25 years behind bars when he is slated to be sentenced on March 26, Brown said.
According to trial testimony, Trevor Bell, a livery cab driver employed by Big D’s Royal Cab Service, located in Jamaica, picked up Peace on Dec. 3, 2010 as a fare when he walked up to the cab service’s office at approximately 8:50 p.m. and requested to be taken to 117-60 122 St. – an address situated on a dead-end street in South Ozone park.
Once the two were at the location, a struggle ensued between the men as they sat in the front seat of the cab, during which Peace shot Bell multiple times in the neck and limbs before fleeing, the DA said.
Shortly thereafter, police responded to a 911 call on the corner of 122nd Street and Sutter Avenue in South Ozone Park and found Bell slumped in the front driver’s seat of the cab with four gunshot wounds – one to the right hand, one to the neck, one to the left leg, and one to the right leg, according to Brown. Bell was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, and to this day the DA said he still suffers from the effects of two strokes that occurred when the bullet was removed from his neck.
The shooting followed five robberies in 2010, all of which Peace was convicted of, Brown said.
The first in the spree occurred at a McDonald’s at 256-01 Union Tpke. on July 15, 2010. That August, he hit a Wendy’s at 222-06 Northern Blvd., as well as a Popeye’s Fried Chicken at 245-01 Francis Lewis Blvd. At the Popeye’s, a store employee was shot in the hand while trying to apprehend Peace, the DA said.
The final two robberies occurred in November 2010 at a Burger King at 92-02 Atlantic Ave. and a McDonald’s at 166-06 Rockaway Blvd., according to Brown.
By Anna Gustafson
