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Former Marine convicted of fatally shooting man during fight near an Ozone Park nightclub

A 2015 picture of the now-closed Flirt nightclub in Ozone Park, outside of which a man was gunned down in August of 2012.
Photo via Google Maps

Though he claimed to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a former Marine from Brooklyn was convicted on Wednesday for fatally shooting a 22-year-old man outside an Ozone Park nightclub back in August of 2012, prosecutors announced.

William Harrigan, 33, was found guilty on March 22 of second-degree charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon after a three-week jury trial, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Law enforcement sources said Harrigan shot and killed Rockaway Beach resident Boutin Williams 22, outside the now-defunct Flirt gentlemen’s club, located at 94-02 80th St., near Atlantic Avenue, between 3 and 4 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 27, 2012. Harrigan and Williams got into a dispute after they were thrown out of the club and exchanged punches.

Moments after the fistfight, prosecutors said, Harrigan went to his car, retrieved a gun and went back toward the club to confront Williams again. He shot Williams four times in the back and once in the upper right arm, then fled the scene.

Officers from the 102nd Precinct responded to the shooting along with EMS units, who pronounced Williams dead at the location.

Detectives apprehended Harrigan the next day and eventually charged him with murder. At trial, Brown said, Harrigan claimed that he suffered from PTSD.

Harrigan faces up to 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory L. Lasak on April 19.