FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Manhattan Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for
Fatal Shooting of Innocent Bystander Inside Brooklyn Smoke Shop
Victim Was a Mother and Stranger to Defendant; Dog Also Killed by Gunfire
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Manhattan man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison following his guilty plea to first-degree manslaughter for fatally shooting a 36-year-old mother who was a stranger to him. The victim was struck by gunfire inside the Bedford-Stuyvesant smoke shop, where she was shopping with her dog. The dog was also killed.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant brazenly opened fire into a store open to the public, killing a completely innocent woman and endangering everyone inside. Today’s sentence ensures he is held accountable for this outrageous act of violence and reflects the seriousness of the harm he caused.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Namel Colon, 39, of the Lower East Side. He pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on June 9, 2025, before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Phyllis Chu, who sentenced him today to 25 years in prison.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on January 2, 2022, at approximately 9:45 p.m., the defendant arrived by car at Salim Smoke Shop, located at 488 DeKalb Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He exited the vehicle and fired into the store, striking Jennifer Ynoa, 36, a mother of four, in the torso. Ynoa, who was inside the store with her dog and had no connection to the defendant, was transferred to The Brooklyn Hospital Center, where she was pronounced dead. The victim’s dog was also fatally shot. A second person was present in the store at the time of the shooting but was not injured.
The defendant fled the scene but was apprehended by members of the NYPD’s Violent Felony Squad on February 22, 2022.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Evan Hannay, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Da Rin, of the District Attorney’s Red Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Leila Rosini, Homicide Bureau Chief.
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