Burton will face 25 years to life in prison if convicted. (iStock)
March 29, 2019 By Laura Hanrahan
A Long Island City teen wanted for the murder of a 29-year-old man was caught yesterday after being stopped by a transit officer for fare evasion.
Shahid Burton, 18, a resident of the Queensbridge Houses, was spotted by a transit officer trying to slip through a turnstile at the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue station in Jamaica.
The transit officer soon discovered that Burton was wanted for the August 2018 shooting of Jelan Moreira. He was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Burton faces 25 years to life in prison and will return to court on April 11.
According to the murder charge, Burton followed Moreira through the courtyard of the Ravenswood Houses, located on 21st Street between 35th and 36th Avenues, early in the morning on Aug. 26.
Burton and a second suspect, who has yet to be apprehended, are seen on video surveillance footage approaching Moreira from behind and fatally shooting him in the torso and chest.
“The defendant is alleged to have shot a man numerous times in the early hours of Aug. 26, 2018,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney John M. Ryan. “The defendant now faces a lengthy term of incarceration.”
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14 Comments
Huh…I guess broken windows works. Is our mayor paying attention?
Part of the problem with turnstile jumping is the elimination of many
token booths to save money (at the same time they raised the fares). I can’t call them Metrocard booths, it doesn’t sound right, although even with booths open, the clerks can’t leave their booths to go after the turnstile jumpers. At the 71st Street/Continental Avenue station (N/B at the back), there are regular turnstiles and no booth so it’s easy for people to get into the station without paying. They need to put the tall turnstiles here. Also at the 67th Avenue station, even adults will wait for somebody to come out of the station using the emergency exit and then sneak through and what the high school kids do is, 1 of them uses their FREE metrocard (while wearing Beat headphones and MJ sneakers!) and then open the emergency door and let 100 of their closest friends in. I’m so glad I give the Moron Transit Authority $121.00 of my hard earned money each month.
Good that he’s caught. Sounds fairly typical. Housing projects, probably never worked in his life. For fare evasion, the city should replace turnstiles with gates like they have in other cities. The gates would be long enough so that someone can’t jump over or go under. This would eliminate turnstile jumpers and save money in the long run.
I’ve seen subway gates in other cities and they work. Probably won’t happen in NY because some people believe that they are entitled not to pay because they are down trodden victims of society and doofus DeBlasio agrees. Part of the culture of entitlement.
thank God, they’re so stupid as trying to beat a fare when they’re wanted for something serious …
Thank god we have some cops that do police work and not potted plants nor the toothpick cops the city seems to like to hire .
Police are doing their job. Well done.
Just by a stroke of luck. They were there. He was clueless. He was handed to them on a platter.
This is why you have to stop fare beaters, most have committed a previous crime, maybe not murder but something else. I believe a year or two ago a fare beater a cop caught had killed a cop and that is how they got him. It keeps criminals off the subways before they get into the system.
I agree, beating a $2.75 fare is murder
No its a criminal mindset, progressive criminality… First its $2.75, then sunglasses and hair extensions, then liquor stores then we hit the big time crime…
Dang!!!! That is bad!
I remember when the fare was 25 cents.
My father still has a 15 cent token.
Why would anyone downvote that? I’m not sad you are down voting me but there is nothing negative, derogatory or racist written in it.