The gunman found guilty in the deadly shooting of another man at a popular Times Square bar in 2017 was sentenced to up to life in prison, according to officials.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that Christopher Rivas was sentenced Tuesday to 23 years to life in prison for the Dec. 19, 2017 shooting that took the life of 33-year-old Perseus Salichs just outside of the now-defunct Tonic Bar in midtown. The district attorney's office said they had recommended 25 years to life.
Rivas, who was 30 at the time of the shooting, was previously convicted of murder in Salichs' death. He initially also faced charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance and intent to sell and criminal possession of marijuana.
Police had said Salichs, of Manhattan, was shot in the pre-dawn hours after some sort of argument.
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A witness who works across the street previously told NBC New York that he didn't see any sort of altercation, but that the suspect just shot the victim, wordlessly, as the victim walked out of the bar.
"There was no fight or anything like that," the witness said. "It was so quiet. They just came out of the club and we heard the shot."
