By Forum Staff
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on Friday that seven men were indicted by a grand jury in connection with a shooting at a baby shower in Richmond Hill in May.
The gunfire, which was apparently gang related, according to Katz, erupted outside the party venue and then continued inside where more than 40 people were gathered including four young children. A 24-year-old Long Island man was killed, and three others were injured.
Michael Hammond, 20, of Brooklyn; Jermaine Orr, 23, of Cambria Heights; Javed Duncan, 23, of Menands, NY; and Jameer Bennett, 20, of Springfield Gardens were each charged in a 55-count indictment with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, reckless endangerment in the first degree, criminal possession of a firearm and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Hammond was additionally charged with tampering with physical evidence.
Lagarthucin LeGrand, 50, of Brooklyn, was charged with four counts of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, two counts of criminal possession of a firearm and tampering with physical evidence. His son, Lagarthucin LeGrand Jr., 26, of Brooklyn, was charged with tampering with physical evidence.
A seventh defendant has yet to be apprehended.
DA Katz said that, according to the charges and investigation, on May 4, 2024, more than 40 people, including four young children, attended a baby shower at Volume Seventeen, a storefront event venue at 108-11 Atlantic Ave. in Richmond Hill.
At approximately 1:30 a.m., approximately dozen people were standing outside the venue when they were approached by two people who opened fire on the group.
One man suffered a gunshot wound to his leg and another man was hit in the abdomen, leg and arm.
The panicked partygoers ran back inside the venue and those inside ran and ducked for cover. Several people, including Orr, Bennett, Hammond and Duncan, allegedly fired guns through the venue’s windows outside to the sidewalk where the shooters had been.
One attendee, 24-year-old Jefari Dobie-Reinhardt of Great Neck, Long Island, was fatally struck by the gunfire. Another partygoer was also injured.
After the gunfire stopped, LeGrand, the expectant grandfather, was allegedly handed a gun by another person who has not been apprehended. He took the firearm and placed it in a tray of rice. His son then put a cover on the tray. A loaded 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol was recovered from a tray of rice in a garbage bag behind the incident location.
Hammond is alleged to have placed a gun in a tray of food and carried it out of the location.
Police recovered 35 shell casings, one fired bullet and two live cartridges from inside the venue.
Katz called it “a scene out of the Wild West.”
If convicted, Hammond, Orr, Duncan and Bennett face up to 15 years in prison. LeGrand faces up to 11 years and LeGrand Jr. faces up to four years.
