FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2005

D.A. BROWN: ARMY PRIVATE ARRAIGNED IN FATAL SHOOTING
OF WOMAN STANDING AT FIFTH-FLOOR APARTMENT WINDOW

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a 23-year-old Queens man on leave from the United States Army has been charged with firing the stray bullet that fatally wounded a young mother two days ago as she stood at her Briarwood apartment window. The defendant, who allegedly had been drinking, was standing out on the street in front of the apartment complex with friends when he allegedly fired a gun into the air.

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Danny Carpio, who is presently stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, and lives at 1405 Bundrant Drive in Killeen, Texas. He also has a Queens address of 139-54 86 Avenue in Briarwood.

Arraigned today before Queens Criminal Court Judge Lenora Gerald, the defendant was charged with Manslaughter in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second and Third Degrees and Tampering with Physical Evidence. Judge Gerald set bail at $300,000 and a return date of January 13, 2006. If convicted, the defendant faces up to fifteen years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said, “As an Army recruit trained in the safety and handling of weapons both on and off the battlefield, the defendant should have known better than to aimlessly fire a gun in a crowded residential area. As a result of his thoughtless action, a young woman is now dead and her two small children must face the difficult and heartbreaking task of adjusting to a life empty of their mother’s presence. Sadly, this case is a grim lesson – especially during this holiday season – as to why guns and drinking are a lethal mixture.”

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, at approximately 11:15 p.m. on December 28, 2005, the defendant, who had just left a relative’s house where he had been drinking, met up with friends outside of 141-68 85th Road in Briarwood, and fired a 9 millimeter semi-automatic pistol numerous times in the air in the direction of a six-story apartment building at 141-68 85th Road . One of the stray bullets struck Selina Akthela, 28, in the head while she was standing at her fifth-floor apartment window, killing her. It is further alleged that after the shooting, the defendant discarded the pistol on 143rd Street as he fled from the scene.

The investigation was conducted by detectives assigned to the New York City Police Department’s Queens Homicide Squad and the NYPD’s 107 Precinct Detective Squad.

Assistant District Attorney Travis W. Hunter of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Richard B. Schaeffer, Senior Trial Attorney, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.