FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 15, 2017
Ex-Boyfriend Charged in Execution Death of Correction Officer
Victim was Ambushed in December as She Sat in Her Car
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 35-year-old man has been indicted for the murder of a New York City Correction Officer who was shot five times while sitting in her car in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn last December. The defendant’s current girlfriend has been charged with hindering prosecution.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Officer Alastasia Bryan never even had a chance to defend herself from this cowardly defendant, who allegedly ambushed her in a deliberate, cold-blooded and calculated shooting. We now intend to hold him and his current girlfriend accountable for their alleged roles in this case as we seek justice for Officer Bryan’s heartbroken family and friends.”
New York City Department of Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte said, “The entire Correction family thanks New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, led by U.S. Marshals and the NYPD, for their time and efforts in capturing this fugitive. We also thank the Brooklyn DA for the hard work that led to this indictment in the murder of our officer.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendants as Keon Richmond, 35, of Kensington, Brooklyn and Shirley Mejia, 24, of Paterson, New Jersey. Richmond has been indicted on one count of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Mejia has been indicted on one count each of first- and third-degree hindering prosecution. Both were arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D’Emic, who ordered Richmond held without bail and Mejia held on $50,000 bail. Both defendants were ordered to return to court on March 15, 2017. If convicted, Richmond faces up to 25 years to life in prison and Mejia faces up to seven years in prison.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on December 4, 2016, at approximately 9:15 p.m., the victim, Alastasia Bryan, 25, was sitting in her car at the corner of Avenue L and East 73rd Street, in Bergen Beach, Brooklyn. She was preparing to drive to Rikers Island, where she worked as a Correction Officer, when she was shot five times about the body.
After shooting Officer Bryan, according to the investigation, the defendant fled the scene in a Hyundai Elantra, which had license plates registered to Mejia. It is alleged that two days after the murder, Mejia paid to have the car stored at a mechanic’s shop in New Jersey and that Richmond removed the plates. It is alleged that cell site records, surveillance video and other electronic data placed the defendant at the scene of the homicide at the time of this murder and captured his flight to New Jersey after the shooting.
The case was investigated by New York City Police Department Detective Valery Paulblanc of the 63rd Precinct Detective Squad and Detective Patrick Henn of the Brooklyn South Homicide Squad.
William Power, Chief Information Officer of the District Attorney’s Information Technology Bureau, assisted in the investigation.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Olatokunbo Olaniyan, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Joanna Lettieri, of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau, under the supervision of Kenneth Taub, Chief of the Homicide Bureau, and Michelle Kaminsky, Chief of the Domestic Violence Bureau.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.