Mask-Wearing Killer Sentenced For Shooting His Neighbor: Brooklyn DA

BROOKLYN, NY — The man who shot and killed his neighbor while holding a Halloween mask will spend the next 17 years of his life behind bars, officials said following his sentencing Thursday.

Gregory Spears, 43, of Brownsville, pleaded guilty to manslaughter back in late January for killing his 62-year-old neighbor in his NYCHA apartment in Brownsville, officials said.

"This defendant committed a heinous crime by killing his neighbor. He has now accepted responsibility for this senseless shooting and been sentenced to a lengthy prison term," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

Spears wore a Halloween mask as he knocked on the door of victim Angel Medina’s 14th-floor apartment in the Langston Hughes Senior Center in Brownsville on May 19, 2020, around 2:40 p.m., prosecutors said.

Medina’s wife answered and led Spears to the bedroom, where he took off his mask, whipped out a gun and blasted Medina multiple times in the torso, fatally injuring him, officials said.

It remains unclear what sparked the dispute between the two. Prosecutors said that Spear's wife was coincidentally visiting Medina's wife inside the apartment at the time of the shooting.

The following day, police arrested Spears when he exited the elevator on the 14th floor and was met by officers securing the crime scene.