Two Shot at Manhattan Ice Rink When Mugging Over Coat Fails

Copyright 2013 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

November 11, 2013 Monday

Late City Final; Pg. 4

721 words

Larry Celona , Jamie Schram and Bruce Golding

A 16-year-old suspected gang-banger virtually confessed Sunday to shooting two people over a coat at the Bryant Park skating rink as he ranted online about keeping police at bay and whether to kill himself, make the cops kill him or surrender.

"FEDS AT MY DOOR IM GOIN OUT WITH A BANG!!!!!!! TAKE MY SOUL," Corey Dunton wrote on Facebook at around 8 a.m. as police descended on his mom's Bronx apartment.

"LOVE ALL MY REAL N- - -AS ALL MY REAL SHORTYS FEDS TRIEN KICK DOWN MY DOOR ITS OVER WERE DO I GO FROM HEREEEEE MANNNNN DO I END MY LIFE IDK WAT TO DO I F- - KED UP," Dunton wrote about an hour later.

"THESE N- - -AS GUNNA HAVE TO TAKE ME OUT TAKE MY LIFE THESE N- - -AS BEEN BANGIN FOR LIKE A F- -KIN HOUR I AINT GOIN TO JAIL I REATHER TAKE MY LIFE!!"

Dunton meekly surrendered shortly after. He was charged Sunday night with attempted murder, assault, weapons possession and reckless endangerment.

Saturday night, Dunton allegedly had tried to mug Javier Contreras, 20, of Manhattan, on the Midtown rink's ice, demanding his Marmot Mammoth parka, known on the streets as a "Biggie," sources said.

Dunton wrote on Facebook early Friday that he was going to the park fully loaded. His Facebook page showed him wearing red beads and holding his fingers in the shape of a pistol.

"Bryant Park Looking To Litt Saterday Gotta Bring Da. amp," he wrote, using the slang word "amp" for gun, law-enforcement sources said.

Contreras refused to hand over his $680 yellow-and-green jacket, prompting Dunton to storm off the ice, sources said. Dunton took off his skates and then went back to the rink's railing and demanded Contreras' jacket again, a source said.

Contreras still refused to give in. When he skated around again in front of Dunton, the teen allegedly fired three shots from a .22-caliber handgun, hitting Contreras in the hand and hip.

Another skater, Adonis Mera, 14, of East Harlem, was shot in the back and gravely wounded. A cellphone photo captured him lying on the ice.

A law-enforcement source said Sunday that it appears Mera will be left permanently paralyzed.

He "has no feelings from the waist down,'' Mera's brother Jorge Arias, 29, said early Sunday.

Another brother who visited Mera at Bellevue Hospital said, "I just wanted to see his face. He's a baby. He's a little kid."

A woman visiting the injured boy identified herself as his mother said, "I just want justice.''

A tipster led cops to the Westchester Avenue apartment of Dunton's mom.

Dunton was taken to the Midtown South station house, where he refused to answer questions and asked for a lawyer, a source said.

"He thinks he's a gangster," the source said. "He think's he's a real tough guy."

Police sources said Dunton has at least six arrests under his belt, including busts for robbery and grand larceny.

The bloodshed erupted at the park's popular Winter Village at around 11 p.m. Saturday, sparking panic.

Cellphone videos show skaters hurtling over the rink wall and searching for loved ones amid the chaos.

Dunton had gone to the rink after a posting made the rounds on Facebook urging people to come to the park for a free skating session, sources said.

There appeared to be an especially large crowd from The Bronx there that night, sources said.

Dan Biederman, head of the Bryant Park Corp., which manages the park, called the shooting an "isolated incident" that marked the first violent crime there in more than two decades.

Biederman said 22 security personnel, including an NYPD cop, were working at the time. About five more cops were stationed there when the park reopened Sunday, drawing a normal-sized crowd.

"I don't know if upping the security would have prevented this, so what we're thinking of instead is should we make changes to hours or [the] admissions policy," he said. "But we've got to talk to the Police Department before we conclude anything like that."

Australian tourist Chris Dower, 63, said he had heard about the shooting, but "life has to go on," and so still went to the rink on Sunday.

"It's like a lot of things in life. If you're at the wrong place at the wrong time, some bad things can happen," he said.

Additional reporting by Joe Tacopino, Elizabeth Hagen, C.J. Sullivan, Daniel Prendergast and Reuven Fenton

[email protected]

Cold blood: Adonis Mera (above and middle inset), 14, possibly paralyzed, lies on the ice Saturday night, and is then taken away by ambulance after he and Javier Conteras (bottom inset) were shot when Contreras refused to give up his coat. (Peter Berber; Facebook)Desperate status: Corey Dunton in a photo on Facebook, where he made a series of posts before he was busted.

November 11, 2013