What to Know
- Police say the person suspected of being the mystery shooter and aiming at a luxury Upper East Side apartment building has turned himself in
- The gunfire was coming from across the East River on Roosevelt Island, and officials were investigating the fired shots for about a week
- One resident of One East River Place found a bullet fragment in their 14-floor room while a woman found a hole in her 32nd-floor window
Cops say the man suspected of taking aim at a luxury Upper East Side apartment building from across the East River on Roosevelt Island has turned himself in.
Farris Koroma, a 22-year-old Roosevelt Island resident, walked into the 114th NYPD precinct in Astoria around 2 a.m. Friday with an attorney, police said. He is charged with criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief, according to the NYPD. Koroma said nothing as he was led out of the 114th Precinct station, his face hidden behind a sweatshirt.
During a court appearance Friday, prosecutors said Koroma recklessly fired a loaded gun from the western promenade of Roosevelt Island, hitting two apartments. When police released surveillance video of the incident, he allegedly deactived a public Instagram account where he posted video of himself firing two shots, according to prosecutors.
Bail for Koroma was set at $100,000. He's next scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 29.
Cops had been trying to track down the person responsible for sending bullets whizzing into two separate apartments of One East River Place, a ritzy, 50-story glass rental that overlooks the river. Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea tweeted surveillance video Wednesday of the two people who may know something about the shootings. Police said early Friday the man in the video is Koroma, but the woman isn't being sought because they said she is a witness.
Police say Koroma fired from Roosevelt Island, where he lives, striking the apartment building at 525 East 72nd St. on two occasions last week. Windows on the 14th and 32nd floors of the luxury high-rise were shattered, but the residents who live there were not hurt. Some units at the swanky building go for as much as $7,800.
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Police are still looking into a motive. On his Facebook page, Koroma talks about the Crips gang, and in one post from July, he said, "This summer is trash, I'm 'bout to shoot somebody."
He's has 10 run-ins with police in the past, including for robbery and grand larceny, prosecutors said. His attorney, however, said Koroma, who is a sophomore at a SUNY school upstate, does not have a criminal record and will forfeit his passport.
A longtime neighbor, who did not want to be indentified, called him a good kid who comes from a churchgoing family.
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Investigators say the first shooting happened sometime last Thursday overnight into Friday morning. They say the gunman, armed possibly with a handgun, blew a hole in a resident’s 14-floor window, shattering it, and when the owner of the apartment woke up they found a 32-caliber bullet fragment on the floor.
"It’s definitely scary. My apartment faces the way where the bullets came in," Tara Coughlin, who lives in the targeted building said. "It’s alarmed the building a lot and people are freaking out."
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More gunfire flew early Saturday; a 64-year-old woman was awakened by a loud bang coming from her 32nd-floor living room. Officials said she discovered her window had a small puncture hole in it; the rest of the glass was spider-webbed around it. The windows were then boarded up.
No injuries were reported in the random shootings, police said.
