By Joe Anuta
Police talked to a person of interest Monday in connection with last week’s Kew Gardens road rage shooting, which left one man dead and his brother wounded, the NYPD said.
But no arrests had been made in the case as of Tuesday evening, authorities said.
Police released a sketch Friday of the person suspected of fatally shooting a Kew Gardens man and injuring his brother after a traffic-related argument at the corner of 125th Street and 84th Drive. The NYPD also released a photo of the suspects’ vehicle.
After the person of interest was put into a lineup, eyewitnesses could not identify him, the New York Post reported.
The incident began shortly after 8 p.m. last Thursday, when police responded to reports of shots fired at and found Roberto Adanes, 25, hit in the chest and torso, according to the NYPD. Adanes was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead at the scene. His brother, 30, was listed in stable condition.
Eyewitnesses who gathered Friday at the small triangular park where the incident occurred said the middle-aged gunman in his 40s to 50s waved his weapon in the air and smiled after the shooting. He was accompanied by a younger, chubby man, witnesses said.
According to a neighbor, who was walking her dog at the time, an argument began when the suspects could not get their vehicle past the car belonging to one of the brothers, she said.
The Kew Gardens brothers approached the suspects’ car — which has been described as both a white pickup truck and a white van full of plumbing supplies bearing Connecticut license plates — and confronted the two men inside the pickup, the neighbor said. After a short, intense argument, the brothers pulled their car around to the other side of the small, triangular park.
The two men in the truck followed suit, but continued past the victims and out of sight, said several eyewitnesses, including Soukat Mian, the superintendent of the building where the two victims lived with their family.
A neighbor said they saw one of the suspects walk back down the street and then a flash of silver as the shooter pulled a handgun out of his waist.
A friend of the brothers who was sitting feet away when the shooting occurred but did not want to be named said Adanes said, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it” before the suspect shot his brother in the head.
Adanes went for the gun and began to struggle with the gunman, the friend said, and was shot in the torso and chest at close range.
Several neighbors recalled hearing five shots.
The gunman then walked back along the street from where he came, passing a resident who asked to be identified only as Jose.
After hearing the shots and remembering his daughter was out walking the dog, Jose quickly walked down 125th Street toward the park and passed the suspect walking the opposite way.
“He was laughing like it was a joke,” Jose said, “with the gun in his hand.”
Jose said the suspect told him if he came any closer, he would be shot as well.
Neighbors said the two men had visited a nearby grocery store several times and might have been doing work in the neighborhood.
“Look at the neighborhood. It’s quiet,” said a resident who only wanted to be identified as Benjamin. “I’m shocked. I knew those boys. It was a shame.”
Another resident who did not want to be identified said, “It’s frightening. Everybody is scared.”
Reach reporter Joe Anuta by e-mail at januta@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4566.
