Press Release

BAR-HOPPING BROOKLYN RESIDENT SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON FOR KILLING MAN WHO INSULTED FEMALE FRIENDS IN 2016

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that a 27-year-old Brooklyn resident has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter and other crimes for shooting and killing a man following a dispute on Steinway Street in July of 2016. The early morning dust up was sparked when someone slung insults at the women accompanying the defendant, who retaliated by grabbing a gun to defend their honor.

District Attorney Katz said, “This act of violence could have easily been avoided. An early morning derogatory remark started a chain of events that resulted in one man being killed.”

The District Attorney’s Office identified the defendant as Santiago Salcedo, 27, of Madison Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. In December 2019, following a 5-week-long trial, a jury found Salcedo guilty of manslaughter in the first-degree, attempted assault in the first degree and 2 counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ronald Hollie today sentenced Salcedo to 20 years in prison on the manslaughter conviction and 5 years for attempted assault, to be served consecutively. The defendant will also serve 5 years’ post release supervision.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to trial testimony, shortly after 4 a.m. on July 17, 2016, after going to several bars on Steinway Street the defendant and 3 friends – two women and one man – walked near 28th Avenue in Astoria, Queens. The foursome walked by Qsaun Brown and another man. Moments later, Brown and his friend made derogatory remarks about the 2 women with Salcedo. One of the women asked the defendant “Are you just going to let them disrespect us like that?”

Continuing, said the DA, according to testimony presented at trial, Salcedo and his friend went to a car and retrieved an item from the trunk. The 2 men then walked back and confronted Brown and the other man on the street. They argued and the 23-year-old victim ran to his car about a half block away and then drove back toward Salcedo. Brown, who did not have a weapon, jumped from his vehicle and rushed toward the area where Salcedo was standing. That’s when the defendant grabbed a gun from his friend and fired 5 times at Brown and the other unarmed man. The victim, who was also from Brooklyn, was struck once in the neck and died 2 days later at a nearby hospital. Brown’s friend was not hit by gunfire.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Emily Collins, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John Kosinski, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.