FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Manhattan Man Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison
For Gunpoint Robbery of Off-Duty Police Officer and Three Others
Defendant and Other Man Robbed Officer and Others in Parked SUV;
Shot at Car, Wounding Officer, as Victims Drove off
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 24-year-old Manhattan man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for robbing an off-duty police officer and three others at gunpoint while they sat in a parked vehicle.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant committed a brazen gunpoint robbery that endangered the lives of a police officer and three other men. With today’s sentence, he is being held accountable and facing the consequences of his criminal actions.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Tori Saunders, 24, of Manhattan. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ruth Shillingford to 12 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision. The defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery last month.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on July 28, 2015, at approximately 10:15 p.m., the defendant and another individual approached a Range Rover with four men inside, that was parked on Linden Boulevard near Miller Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The defendant and the other individual opened the vehicle’s driver’s side doors and stole cash, cell phones, jewelry and other items at gunpoint from the four victims inside the vehicle.
According to the investigation, the driver of the vehicle then attempted to leave, and the defendant and the other individual opened fire, striking the vehicle and one of the passengers, Tramaine Oxley, an off-duty police officer assigned to the New York City Police Department Housing Bureau. The driver of the vehicle drove to Brookdale Hospital, where Oxley was treated for two gunshot wounds.
The defendant and the other individual fled the scene in a blue BMW. The ensuing investigation recovered a fingerprint on the Range Rover that matched the defendant’s. Two days later, on July 30, 2015, the defendant was apprehended during a car stop in Nassau County. Oxley identified the defendant in a lineup as the assailant.
The case was investigated by Detective Michael Byrnes of the New York City Police Department Force Investigation Division.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Robert Schwartz, of the District Attorney’s Trial Bureau Red Zone, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis, formerly Chief of the Red Zone, and now Chief of the District Attorney’s Trial Division.
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