Crime & Safety
Prior Violent Felon Found Guilty Of Shooting Into Occupied LI Home: DA
He shot into a house he believed belonged to a woman he argued with, but the home was instead occupied by an elderly couple, the DA said.
SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — A Patchogue man, who is a previous violent felon, was found guilty of shooting into an occupied Mastic Beach home in April 2024, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced Friday.
Jerry McKoy, 58, was convicted of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and other related charges, the DA said.
"This defendant, a previously convicted violent felon, pulled out an illegal loaded firearm and fired it into the home of an innocent elderly couple following an argument over money," Tierney said in a news release. "Thanks to the prosecutors and our law enforcement partners, today’s verdict is another step forward in holding perpetrators accountable for this type of senseless violence."
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In the early hours of April 11, 2024, McKoy got into an argument with a woman over money inside his car on Hickory Road in Mastic Beach, prosecutors said. After the woman exited McKoy’s vehicle, he began searching for the woman on the property of a house that McKoy believed the woman entered, officials said.
McKoy knocked on the door but when nobody answered, he went back into his vehicle, took out a loaded semi-automatic handgun and fired two shots into the home, authorities said.
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The house that McKoy shot into was not the woman’s residence, the DA said. The home was instead occupied by a 78-year-old man and his 66-year-old wife who were not injured in the shooting, investigators said.
The Suffolk County Police Department recovered a 9MM caliber projectile in the couple’s living room the following morning, officials said.
Over the course of several months after the shooting, law enforcement used several advanced
investigative tactics to identify McKoy as the shooter, prosecutors said. He was arrested July 29, 2024, the DA said.
Before the shooting in Mastic Beach, McKoy was convicted of second-degree assault in 2021, and he was convicted of first-degree burglary in 2000, Tierney said.
McKoy was convicted on Friday of two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and one count of first-degree reckless endangerment, the DA said.
McKoy is due back in court for sentencing on June 24 and faces up to 25 years to life in prison. He is being represented by Chase Brown.
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