Police have arrested two men for driving around Glendale and Middle Village shooting nearly a dozen pedestrians, along with pieces of property, with paintballs on Friday, Oct. 13.
According to law enforcement authorities, Gilbert Lopez, 22, of Sutter Avenue in Brooklyn, and Oscar Casanova, 19, of Central Avenue in Glendale, were arrested in front of 70-28 73rd Pl. in relation to eight incidents of shooting paintballs out of a car, striking several victims and buildings.
The duo has been charged with eight accounts of assault, two counts of reckless endangerment, and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police announced.
According to a CBS report, Larry Interrante, one of the victims of the paintball attacks, was walking along 77th Avenue in Glendale with his 5-year-old son looking at the neighborhood’s Halloween decorations when he was hit with a paintball.
His first thoughts were that they were gunshots, and he immediately went to protect his son.
“I ripped off my jacket; grabbed my son. We ducked down,” Interrante told CBS. “I was more concerned about my son being hit.”
Lopez and Casanova continued their paintball spree at Juniper Valley Park before one of the other victims took down the license plate number and gave it to police, CBS reported.
Officers from the 104th Precinct then made the arrest in Glendale. The precinct touted the arrest on their Twitter page, releasing an image of the paintball gun.
Excellent work by all Officers involved in the arrest of several individuals in connection with firing this paintball gun from a vehicle pic.twitter.com/7PapaYbvC4
— NYPD 104th Precinct (@NYPD104Pct) October 14, 2017
