Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Marco Mosquera has been convicted by a jury of attempted murder, attempted aggravated assault of a police officer, kidnapping and other charges for threatening his then wife, an off-duty police officer, with her own service weapon during a harrowing domestic violence incident in September 2021. Mosquera barricaded the front door of the couple’s South Ozone Park home and fired multiple gunshots at responding police officers who came to the rescue of their fellow officer.

District Attorney Katz said: “The defendant stole his wife’s firearms, threatened her life and held a shoot-out with responding law enforcement officers. Despite her ordeal, Officer Mosquera showed remarkable grit in summoning law enforcement to the scene. She bravely jumped from a window to save her own life and escape from the defendant. We are grateful for the jury’s verdict in achieving justice for the victims.”

Mosquera, 46, of South Ozone Park, was convicted yesterday by a jury of attempted murder in the second degree, assault in the first degree, attempted assault in the first degree, kidnapping in the second degree, two counts of attempted aggravated assault upon a police officer and four counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

Opening statements for the trial began on November 14 and closings occurred on December 11 and 12. The jury deliberated for approximately two days before reaching a verdict. Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky, who presided over the trial, ordered the defendant to return to Court for sentencing on January 24, 2025, when he faces up to 80 years in prison.

According to the charges and trial testimony, on September 14, 2021, at approximately 6:00 a.m. the victim, Stacy Mosquera, a New York City Police Department officer, arrived at her South Ozone Park home. Despite the early hour, the defendant, Marco Mosquera, her then husband, was awake in the home, had bloodshot eyes and was drinking alcohol.

Upon arriving home, the defendant engaged the victim in a verbal dispute. During the argument the defendant broke household objects. The victim attempted to calm the defendant down and clean up. While she was cleaning, the defendant went into the victim’s bedroom where she kept her service firearm and an off-duty firearm in a safe. The defendant emerged from the victim’s bedroom and pointed the firearms at her and said, “We are about to change the game up.”

The defendant told the victim that they were going to die that day, and it that if the cops came “things would not end well.” Despite his threats, the victim made several calls and reached 911 for emergency assistance.

Officers from the 106^th Precinct and the Emergency Service Unit responded to the home and discovered the front entrance barricaded. The defendant then fired multiple shots, with one shot shattering the glass door panel and striking a uniformed police officer in the boot.

A responding officer established contact with the victim by telephone and told her to exit the house. The victim jumped out of a second-floor bedroom window as the defendant approached her with a gun in his hand. She fell onto the concrete below, fracturing her left knee.

An officer immediately ran over to protect the victim with a large ballistic blanket designed to deflect gunfire. The defendant then approached the window, pointed the black firearm in the direction of the victim and a uniformed police officer holding the ballistic blanket, and discharged the firearm. He then backed away from the window and continued to fire multiple times in the direction of the responding officers. During the exchange, the defendant sustained a gunshot wound to his forearm.

After an extended period of exchanging fire with responding NYPD officers, the defendant ultimately tossed the firearms out of a window, as instructed by police. He then surrendered and was subsequently taken into police custody.

After the defendant’s arrest, officers recovered the firearms next to the house and ammunition — including a quantity of 9 mm cartridges as well as nine 9 mm casings, both inside and outside the home.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital where she was treated for multiple fractures which required surgeries to place plates and screws in her left knee.

Assistant District Attorneys Thomas Salmon of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau and Casey Gingrich of Felony Trial Bureau III are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Michael Whitney, Bureau Chief of Career Criminal Major Crimes, and Roni C. Piplani, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of Major Crimes Shawn Clark.