An unruly Long Island City club patron denied re-admittance after he was shown the door early on Wednesday decided he’d have the last word when he grabbed a gun from his nearby car and fired a shot toward the bar’s bouncers.
But alert NYPD officers – already keeping a watchful eye on the locale – heard the gunfire and chased down the shooter, and recovered the loaded weapon along with stacks of cash, nearly five pounds of cocaine, crack, crystal methamphetamine, and thousands of Xanax pills.
The shooting happened about 2:30 a.m., after 29-year-old Aaron Dockery and a friend were escorted out of Club Lit on Steinway Street in Queens for acting belligerently, according to witnesses.
Dockery reportedly asked that he be allowed back inside as long as his friend remained outside – a proposal squarely rebuffed by the doormen.
With that, Dockery then loudly and vehemently threatened to shoot up the club, witnesses told police. He ran across the street to the P.C. Richard & Son parking lot, where his 2010 Dodge Charger was stationed, retrieved a Taurus 9mm semiautomatic handgun and started to return to the club.
He fired one round from the black-and-silver weapon into the air before sprinting – clutching the pistol in his sweatshirt pocket – back to his sedan, where two uniformed officers were already waiting for him.
After spotting Police Officers Lucas McDonald and James Nostramo of the 114th Precinct, Dockery quickly turned tail and ran the other way down Steinway Street to 36th Avenue, where Nostramo – chasing on foot – saw him throw the firearm under a parked car.
McDonald followed close behind in the marked police car and Dockery was captured steps later, along with the gun, loaded with five bullets in its magazine and one ready to fire in its chamber.
Back at Dockery’s black sedan, a bag of crack cocaine and two loose rounds of ammunition were visible in the open glove compartment. After his arrest, a search of the vehicle by police turned up even more cocaine, crystal meth, and some 6,550 yellow and white Xanax pills.
Dockery, who had $2,200 in cash on him at the time of the arrest, was charged with Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance, Criminal Possession of a Loaded Firearm, Reckless Endangerment, Resisting Arrest, Menacing, and Obstructing Governmental Administration.
An apparent friend of Dockery, David Torres, 38, of Hempstead was apprehended after attempting to enter Docker’s Dodge Charger that was being safeguarded by Police. He was charged with Hindering Prosecution, Tampering with Physical Evidence, Obstructing Governmental Administration, and Unlawful Possession of Marijuana.
Investigators are continuing to search for a third suspect, a 24-year-old Hempstead man who was sitting in Dockery’s car when he retrieved the firearm, but who fled on foot as police chased down the gunman.
