Two suspected gunmen were arraigned on 88 charges for a July 4th mass shooting at a Coney Island barbecue that wounded eight people and killed a puppy.
Robert Smith, 44, and Kevin Blunt, 44, were indicted this month on charges including attempted murder and assault, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Wednesday.
Blunt was formally arraigned on the indictment on August 3.
Smith was arraigned on Wednesday.
“These defendants are allegedly responsible for unleashing a barrage of gunfire into a courtyard packed with families celebrating the Fourth of July,” Gonzalez said in a statement.
“The fact that no person was killed is extraordinary, but it does not diminish the alleged recklessness and brutality of this attack,” Gonzalez added.
When Smith’s gun appeared to jam after he attempted to fire into the barbecue, Blunt allegedly helped clear it, prosecutors said.
Smith then fired approximately 15 shots into the crowd.
Eight family members sustained gunshot wounds.
The victims included four minors — boys aged six, seven, 12, and 14.
Four adults were also wounded, aged 21, 25, 33, and 37.
All victims were transported to local hospitals.
The 21-year-old woman was initially reported in critical condition.
The other seven victims were stabilized.
The six-year-old boy’s 10-week-old puppy, named Sky, died after being shot in the head.
In the viral moment that preceded the indictments, the shooting turned a family celebration into a nightmare scene on July 4th. A masked gunman opened fire into a residential building’s courtyard near Surf Avenue and West 30th Street shortly after 10 p.m., police said. The attack came during an active family barbecue, with no prior argument or altercation detected by investigators.
The day before Smith was rounded up by the US Marshal’s Regional Fugitive Task Force on July 8, grandmother Carlene Pearsall made a desperate plea to Mayor Zohran Mamdani for justice at a vigil for the victims.
“They shot our babies,” Pearsall sobbed.
“This is senseless. Our kids did not deserve that. My son is laying in a hospital bed saying, ‘Mom, what did I do to deserve this?’ Son, you did absolutely nothing… It has to stop.”
Law enforcement sources previously noted the shooting may have been gang-related.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a July 5 news conference that detectives were investigating whether the incident was connected to a fatal gang-related shooting on the same block days earlier.
“There is no place for this kind of violence in our city. We will not tolerate it. We will fight it with every single tool at our disposal,” Mayor Mamdani said at that same news conference.
A TEC-9-style firearm equipped with an extended magazine was recovered at the scene, along with 10 discharged shell casings, Tisch said.
Smith was arrested on July 8 after the NYPD announced on X that he had been charged with multiple counts of attempted murder.
Both defendants now face the 88-count indictment as the case proceeds through Brooklyn courts.