Seize teen as BB-Gun shooter

An 18-year-old Whitestone man has been arrested and charged with the BB-gun shooting of seven people in Flushing and Whitestone over the last two months.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Paul Roedel, 18, of 148-19 Willets Point Boulevard in Whitestone, is accused of “randomly and recklessly firing numerous rounds of ammunition” at the half-dozen victims.
Roedel is out of jail on $25,000 bail, but faces multiple counts of assault, menacing, harassment and firearms violations, and could face seven years imprisonment if convicted.
Although all the injuries were minor, Brown’s office is not taking the matter lightly. The case is under the aegis of the Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau. “There did exist the potential for more serious injuries,” Brown said.
The spree began shortly after midnight on September 23, when a 15-year-old Forest Hills girl was shot in the back and wounded in Flushing.
Four more attacks followed in short order, on two consecutive Tuesdays. Those victims also suffered non-life threatening injuries to the leg or torso.
It was the sixth attack that brought Roedel’s alleged rampage to an end.
According to Brown, a 17-year-old Flushing youth who was acquainted Roedel had seen the man driving a tan Nissan Maxima at the intersection of 27th Avenue and 146th Street in Flushing, just before he was shot.
Roedel allegedly called the victim by a nickname and then fired, striking him in the left leg.
When detectives from the 109th Precinct arrested Roedel, they found a Daisy Powerline Model 880 BB/pellet gun in his car, along with 180 pellets for the gun, according to Brown.
Roedel is due back in court on November 1.