Boss shot in NYCHA office fights for life
A city housing maintenance worker had murder on his mind and a phone on FaceTime when he kicked in a Bronx building office door and pumped four bullets into his boss, the victim told the Daily News Thursday.
“I am going to f-—ing kill you,” Frankie Corchado screamed as he unloaded a gun at Charles Newton, a New York City Housing Authority building superintendent on Jan. 6, Newton said.
“He said it three or four times,” the victim recalled from his hospital bed. “He kicked the door twice, it gave in on the second kick.”
The shooting at the Fort Independence Houses on Bailey Ave. in Kingsbridge Heights brought a violent end to a bitter feud that had been brewing for months, police said.
“It was no accident,” said Newton, 43. “Early in the morning, I gave him a writeup. He was approving people taking time off and not filling their spots. He signed off on it and left.”
Corchado, 46 stormed into Newton’s office with a gun and an iPhone in hand, the victim told The News.
“I was at my desk. He was FaceTiming [his wife], he said, ‘Baby, I want you to see this.’ I got up and saw the gun out,” Newton recalled. “I grabbed at the gun, we were tussling with the gun.”
The pair scuffled, Newton said, with Corchado biting his forearm and hand before opening fire.
“He blew my leg out from under me. I was on the ground,” Newton said. “He shot me in the stomach. It was click, pow. He shot me four times.”
Newton was shot in the thigh, chest, abdomen and foot and was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he remains.
“I just hope for my recovery. It’s going to be a long time,” Newton said, adding that he has a collapsed lung and a shattered femur.
After the bloodshed,
Corchado slashed Newton’s and another supervisor’s tires so no one could follow him, Newton and a criminal complaint revealed.
Then, Corchado sped away in a Chevrolet Tahoe. He turned himself in Wednesday with his lawyer, Dawn Florio.
Florio said the shooting was an accident.
“I don’t want to say he’s maintaining his innocence because obviously this is a case where he had a gun,” Florio said. “He was trying to kill himself.”
His victim disagrees. “This was nothing about suicide in this. All I know is that he shot me four times,” Newton said. “If he wanted to kill himself he could have saved some of the bullets for himself.”
Newton mentioned nothing about a suicide attempt in his interview with cops.
“This is what happens when Frankie doesn’t get what he wants,” the victim explained. “He was a ticking time bomb. But I didn’t think he would snap. I didn’t see this coming, not at all. I gave him his space. I respected him. But he shot me.”
Corchado was arraigned Thursday and charged with attempted murder, assault and weapons possession. He was being held on $100,000 cash bail.
“NYCHA failed me. There were numerous complaints,” Newton said. “They didn’t move him.”