Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Joshua Petillo and Kevin Guerra have been indicted by a Queens County grand jury on murder charges and additional crimes for allegedly shooting a man in the middle of a Corona street on June 30, 2020.
District Attorney Katz said, “The victim in this case was running for hislife when he was shot down and killed on a residential street in a senseless act of gun violence. Shootings are literally leaving our streets stained with blood. I am committed to getting illegal guns off our streets and holding those who kill and injure others accountable. The two men charged in this case will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Guerra, 21, of East Elmhurst, and Petillo, 23, of Ozone Park, were both arraigned last week before Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron. The defendants are charged in a 3-count indictment with murder in the second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
Both defendants were remanded into custody. Justice Kron set the defendants’ return date for November 5, 2020. If convicted, Petillo and Guerra face up to 25 years to life in prison.
District Attorney Katz said that, on Tuesday, June 30, 2020, at approximately 11:30 p.m., defendant Petillo, while acting in concert with defendant Guerra, allegedly chased 20-year-old Dante Santillan down Warren Street in the Corona neighborhood of Queens. Petillo allegedly fired a single shot, hitting the Jackson Heights man in the back. Mr. Santillan – injured and bleeding – managed to continue moving. He made it to a restaurant on 40th Road. A friend of the victim drove him to an area hospital, where he later died from the single gunshot wound.
There is no known motive for the shooting.
The investigation was led by Detective Charles Dever of the New York City Police Department’s 110th Precinct and Detective Shaquan Harvin of the Queens North Homicide Squad.
Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Mendoza, a Supervisor in the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Jonathan R. Sennett, Bureau Chief, and Michelle Goldstein, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney of Investigations Gerard Brave.
