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Brooklyn Man Who Shot Drag Queen Has Extensive Rap Sheet, 16 Prior Arrests
The 21-year-old Brooklyn man arrested after shooting a drag queen during an unprovoked assault last Saturday has an extensive history with the police, including 16 prior arrests and a “menacing” charge for shooting his gun in the same neighborhood a night before his latest attack.
Three men were arraigned on multiple charges over the weekend, including attempted murder, after harassing a man dressed as a woman near the corner of Broadway & Putnam in Brooklyn’s Bushwick neighborhood.
According to criminal complaints, 21-year-old Matthew Smith, 17-year-old Tavon Johnson and 22-year-old Cody Sigue began harassing the victim and two other men in drag on Saturday morning around 7am, calling them “faggots” and “trannies.” That’s when Smith decided to pull a gun and shoot one of the men “in the buttocks.”
All three suspects were pursued by police on foot after the attack and apprehended shortly thereafter. The victim, later taken to Brookdale University Hospital, was treated for minor injuries.
All three face charges with hate crime status — Johnson and Sigue were charged with menacing and aggravated harassment; Smith was charged with the same, including extra charges for assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and attempted murder in the second degree.
Department of Corrections records show that Smith has been arrested 16 times prior, and DNAinfo reports he’s been “in and out of the city’s incarceration system since December 2012.” They also claim he was “charged with firing off his gun” on his block the night before he was arrested.
While the victim and his two friends have chosen to remain unidentified, a spokesperson from AVP told BuzzFeed that “advocates don’t believe the victim identified as transgender, but was target in part because of his feminine clothing.”
Either way, this final crime is expected to get him some time behind bars.
Seemingly by coincidence, the Brooklyn DA announced this morning that the borough is launching a new hate crimes unit to deal with the shocking recent uptick in hate crimes.
Queerty Editor
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