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Reputed street gang member says he shot and nearly killed a rival at a Corona nightclub

A reputed street gang member admitted to shooting a rival inside this Corona nightclub last December.
Photo via Google Maps

A 22-year-old gang-banger admitted in court on Wednesday that he shot a rival at a Corona nightclub last December.

Brooklyn resident Jose Sanchez-Ortiz, 22, pleaded guilty to attempted murder before Acting Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Melendez, who scheduled sentencing for September 20. Sanchez-Ortiz faces up to nine years behind bars and five years’ probation, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Prosecutors said Sanchez-Ortiz opened fire on 21-year-old Jose Apolinar inside the Pasiones club on 103rd Street in Corona at about 10:43 p.m. on Dec. 14. Apolinar, identified as a member of a rival street gang, was struck in the left arm; he underwent treatment at a local hospital for a severed artery.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, Sanchez-Ortiz was inside the Pasiones club on 103rd Street in Corona on the evening of December 14, 2015, when he shot at 21-year-old Jose Apolinar, a reputed member of the Los Ninos Malos street gang, and struck him in the left arm. Apolinar was transported to a local Queens hospital where he underwent surgery for a severed artery in his arm.

Sanchez-Ortiz has been held in custody on $500,000 bail since his arrest back in March by the 115th Precinct Detective Squad.

“The victim was wounded in the gunplay, but fortunately survived,” Brown said in a statement. “This kind of random, senseless violence has no place in a civilized society.”