An Edgemere man admitted to shooting an off-duty cop who he was trying to carjack in the Arverne section of Far Rockaway just over a year ago, according to the Queens district attorney’s office.
Chad Collie, 19, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in the second degree in Queens Supreme Court and now faces 19 years in prison, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on April 12.
According to the charges, at approximately 10 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2022, Collie and his associate Jayare Robinson approached NYPD Officer Manuel Soto as he sat in his vehicle, which was stopped at a traffic light near the intersection of Beach Channel Drive and Beach 62nd Street. Collie tapped on the driver’s side window and, at gunpoint, demanded the 22-year-old off-duty cop get out of the car.
Video surveillance shows Soto exiting the vehicle and backing away from Collie, who proceeded to fire three shots at the officer, striking him once in the shoulder, according to the charges. The off-duty officer returned fire but missed Collie, who then fled the scene on foot. Uniformed officers from the 100th Precinct in Rockaway Beach were nearby and heard the gunfire. They raced to the scene of the shooting and spotted Collie and Robinson on Beach 62nd Street. The officers from the 100th Precinct Public Safety Team followed them to the intersection of Beach Channel Drive and Beach 59th Street where the two teenagers were taken into custody and Collie’s handgun was recovered.
Back at the crime scene, officers took Soto into their vehicle and rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was treated for the gunshot wound to his shoulder.
Detectives collected three shell casings that were found at the crime scene near the intersection of Beach 62nd Street and Beach Channel Drive where Collie had fired the shots. The shooting of the off-duty officer occurred just hours before the NYPD bid farewell to slain Police Officer Wilbert Mora at his funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Mora was fatally shot along with his partner Police Officer Jason Rivera while responding to a domestic dispute in Harlem. Both officers were posthumously promoted to first-grade detectives.
“We will not allow our communities to devolve into a state of chaos where police officers are fired upon without consequence,” Katz said. “The rule of law and the officers who enforce it must be respected. This case is yet another example of why we must continue doing all we absolutely can to get guns off our streets.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Toni Cimino indicated she would sentence Collie to a determinate term of 19 years in prison at sentencing on May 30.
