A suspect connected to a deadly shooting in Astoria last August was collared in Jamaica this week after he tried to slip through a subway station turnstile without paying, prosecutors announced on Friday.
Shahid Burton, 18, and an unidentified individual doubled-up while passing through the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue station at 12:50 a.m. on March 28, according to Chief Assistant District Attorney John Ryan. A police officer stopped Burton and subsequently learned that he was the prime suspect in the Aug. 26, 2018 murder of Jelan Moreira, who was shot to death following a dispute outside the Ravenswood Houses.
Burton, who resides at the Queensbridge Houses on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, remains locked up without bail on charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He’s due back in court on April 11, and faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
“The defendant was a suspect in an ongoing homicide investigation,” Ryan said on March 29. “However, an alleged early-morning fare evasion attempt at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue subway station has resulted in the arrest of this individual wanted for murder.”
Prosecutors said that Burton and another unapprehended individual participated in Moreira’s murder, which occurred at about 5:20 a.m. on Aug. 26, 2018, in a courtyard at the Ravenswood Houses.
Security camera footage shows Burton and the other individual approaching the victim from behind. Moreira was subsequently shot multiple times in the torso and chest.
Officers from the 114th Precinct and EMS units responded to the scene. Moreira later died of his injuries at Elmhurst Hospital.
