Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Rawle Washington, 27, has been charged with attempted murder, assault and other crimes for injuring a man he allegedly shot at the Surfside Motel in September 2021. The defendant allegedly fired several times at the victim.

District Attorney Katz said, “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 way from his DNA. Genetic testing on this evidence connects the defendant to this brutal crime.”

Washington, of Scholes Street in the South Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, was arraigned yesterday afternoon before Queens Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey on a seven-count complaint. The defendant is charged 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. Judge Gaffey ordered the defendant to return to Court on January 21, 2022. Washington faces up to 25 years in prison, if convicted.

District Attorney Katz said, according to the charges, shortly after 10 a.m. on September 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, the DA continued, the defendant 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 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 the defendant allegedly toss 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 January 18, 2022, after a lengthy investigation into his whereabouts.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Anthony Davis of the Queens Detective Area 106, of the New York City Police Department.

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Rella, of the Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Shawn Clark, Bureau Chief, Michael Whitney Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel Saunders.