An 18-year-old Saint Albans youth has been arrested in connection with the October 2 shooting death of 13-year-old Kevin Miller and the wounding of another youth, in what authorities are calling an “altercation between rival street gangs.”
Gregory Calas, 18, of 145-19 228th Street in Saint Albans, was charged with second-degree murder, assault and possession of a loaded gun, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
Calas’ mother, Jodelle is reportedly proclaiming his innocence. “They have the wrong guy. He was there but there was no evidence he shot anyone,” she reportedly said, insisting, “My son isn’t the kind of person who runs around with a gun.”
However court records show that Gregory Calas was arrested on May 6 in the 113th Precinct – not far from where the fatal shooting took place – for possession of a loaded gun and a controlled substance – and is facing 15 years in prison on those charges. He was due in court on Wednesday, October 15 in that case.
Calas reportedly did not enter a plea at his arraignment on the murder charges and was ordered to jail without bond.
The arrest was announced on Friday, October 9, the day of the Miller’s funeral at the New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Jamaica. He had been a freshman at Humanities & the Arts Magnet High School, two blocks from where he was killed.
As weeping friends and relatives said goodbye to the slain Miller, his mother, Donna Greaves, remained strong in the hope that some meaning might come from her loss. “Maybe it will wake up some young people who are into gangs or thinking about gangs and they’ll just see it’s just so wrong,” she reportedly said after the funeral.
“This case is another example of the mindless gun-related violence that too often takes innocent lives and recklessly endangers public safety,” DA Brown said. “The result of such gunplay is that a 13-year-old boy, who was taken far before his time, is being buried today and his family must struggle with his loss,” he continued.
Nnonso Ekwegbalu, 16, of 141-25 183rd Street in Springfield Gardens was arraigned on similar charges on Monday, October 5. Charged as an adult, he was ordered held without bail and is scheduled to return to court on October 19.
If convicted, each faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Calas and Ekwegbalu were allegedly members of the “Crips” street gang and in an altercation with three members of a rival street gang, the “Bloods.”
Neither Miller nor the second shooting victim were members of a gang or involved in the altercation, according to DA Brown, who called the victims “innocent bystanders.”
At about 3:15 p.m. on Friday, October 2, the DA charged, the two, “acting in concert,” fired shots at their rivals, “who were fleeing, unarmed” from in front of a car wash at 208-15 Linden Boulevard, two blocks from the school.
One of the defendants’ bullets allegedly struck Miller in the head, killing him; the other victim, a 17-year-old Hispanic who reportedly worked at the car wash, was hospitalized, according to DA Brown.
Calas is scheduled to be back in court on Friday, October 30 for the murder.
