By Connor Adams Sheets
Police have arrested two suspects in a July 2 retaliatory shooting that killed a 39-year-old mother while she sat in her car outside her home in the Pomonok Houses in Fresh Meadows.
Lerome Robinson, 21, was arrested July 6 in Albany following the capture of Malik Wallace, 20, July 3. The two Pomonok Houses residents were charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the double shooting that left Christina Coleman dead and her 18-year-old son Hassan Gil badly wounded, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. The suspects each face up to 50 years in prison if convicted of the crimes.
Both suspects have been arraigned and ordered held without bail and were scheduled to return to court Monday, according to the DA.
“This senseless shooting — which left a mother dead and her son injured — once again underscores the serious issue of handgun violence,” Brown said in a statement last Thursday. “It is imperative that we continue to crack down on illegal handguns in an effort to safeguard our communities.”
The attack was described by police as payback for an earlier incident and not targeted at Christina Coleman or Gil. Authorities believe the shooting was intended for her other son, 22-year-old Mark Coleman, who allegedly participated in a shooting earlier July 2 and was still being sought by police Tuesday evening.
Christina Coleman, who worked as a nurse at Queens Hospital Center, and Gil were both shot at about 5:45 p.m. July 2 while they sat in her 2006 light blue Volkswagen in front of her home at 155-26 Jewel Ave. in the Pomonok Houses, police said.
Immediately after the shooting, Gil reported the crime to officers at Police Service Area 9 a few buildings away at 155-09 Jewel Ave., according to police. Coleman and Gil were taken to New York Hospital Queens, where Coleman was declared dead on arrival from a gunshot to the head and later that day Gil, who suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, was listed in stable condition, police said.
The deadly assault followed a shooting earlier the same day at 67-18 Parsons Blvd., which wounded two suspected drug dealers, police said. It was probably a case of mistaken identity as sources told the New York Post that the shooters were gunning for Mark Coleman, who also lives in Pomonok and has a tattoo of his mother’s name on his neck.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
