A man once convicted of manslaughter has been arrested on murder charges in a shooting on Staten Island that left a pregnant woman and her boyfriend dead and another woman injured, authorities said Tuesday.
Philip Moreno, 45, was taken into custody after he was seen trying to leave the scene with a handgun, the NYPD said. He was found with a semi-automatic gun in his possession, along with a silencer. The shooting occurred around 5 p.m. Monday, and charges were announced Tuesday morning.
Moreno’s lawyer, Mark Fonte, said Moreno was arraigned Tuesday afternoon via video.
“We’re still investigating what happened inside that house that led to this tragedy,” Fonte said.
Police said officers responded to a home on Grandview Dive in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood. When first responders arrived at the scene, three victims were found with gunshots wounds, according to police.
Two of those people, 46-year-old Alafia Rodriguez and 33-year-old Ana Desousa, were both pronounced dead. The two were dating and living together, police said, and it is believed Desousa was pregnant. A 45-year-old woman was taken to the hospital after being shot in the torso, the NYPD said. She was in serious but stable condition.
A 1-year-old girl was also found at the house, but she was unharmed.
News
A motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, but police said that "narcotics and narcotics paraphernalia" were found in the house.
At age 19, Moreno pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting of a 22-year-old man in 1992 at a Staten Island public housing complex a few hundred feet from the scene of Monday’s killings.
Moreno spent more than 13 years in prison, records show. He returned to prison about a year after his release, serving an additional nine years for drug and weapon possession.
Moreno was released from Green Haven three years ago for criminal possession of a controlled substance. His arrest record boasts six priors — five of which are felonies, law enforcement sources said.
