By Elana Glowatz
Police have arrested two teenage stepbrothers in connection with one of the three shootings that took place in Huntington Station over the course of three days in late April.
The Suffolk County Police Department alleged on Thursday that 18-year-old Jonattan Canales and 19-year-old Cesar Moncada, who live in the same Tower Street home, shot a man in the foot while he was walking through the Long Island Rail Road commuter lot off New York Avenue.
When that shooting occurred on the night of April 23, police said 20-year-old Jose Jurado was walking in the lot when someone stepped out of a vehicle, pointed a gun at him and fired. Jurado, of Huntington Station, fled and made it to the 7-Eleven at New York Avenue and Depot Road, where another person called 911. The victim was treated at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow.
Detectives have charged Canales and Moncada with first-degree assault. They were scheduled to be arraigned on May 5 and attorney information was not immediately available.
According to the New York State court system’s online database, both the men have other charges pending against them: Canales for possession of a forged instrument and moving traffic violations, including unlicensed driving; and Moncada for criminal possession of marijuana and criminal possession of a weapon, for a loaded firearm.
The night of Jurado’s shooting was an active one for Huntington Station. About two hours after that incident, several shots were fired toward a home on East 6th Street, between Fairground Avenue and Lenox Road. Police said at the time that two friends were standing in the driveway when shots were fired in the house’s direction, with several of them hitting the home. Other bullets, police said, hit a vehicle in the driveway of the house next-door, where a child was asleep in the back seat.
The 8-year-old child was not hurt.
A few days later, several shots were fired near 10th Avenue. Officers responded to a ShotSpotter activation on that block, between Craven and West 15th streets. Five men who were standing in front of a home on the residential street reported hearing gunshots and seeing flashes of light, police said, but did not see anyone firing a gun.
According to police, no injuries were reported but spent bullet casings were found at the scene.