Too loaded to fire gun, family says
RELATIVES OF A man police say shot a livery cab passenger in the head — leaving him brain-dead in Brooklyn — say the suspect was too drunk to commit the crime.
Michael Magnan, 19, was dancing the night away at a wedding on Long Island in the hours before the shooting, relatives said.
“This guy was drunk,” said his father, Frantz Magnan. “How could he do something like that?”
Authorities say the boozed-up wedding dancer was the menace who tried to stick up a livery cab driver and passenger Nikita Grebelskiy. The 23-year-old passenger was sitting next to his sister while the car was stopped at a red light at the intersection of Utica Ave. and Avenue O about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
Magnan demanded cash from the driver, Eric Martine, who punched the would-be robber in the face. The gunman also demanded cash and jewelry from the passengers before the driver floored it and sped off, Martine told the Daily News.
The gunman squeezed off a shot, plugging Grebelskiy in the head. Police said the shooter ran down the block to Club 9ja Villa, where he waved a gun at bouncers. The bouncers flagged down cops, who arrested Magnan nearby. Police found a .380 semiautomatic handgun on the ground near him.
Magnan was charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon and crimi- nal mischief Sunday, officials said. He lives in Flatlands — not far from the livery shooting.
“I didn’t shoot nobody,” Magnan said Saturday, as he was being escorted to an ambulance.
Police led him from the 63rd Precinct stationhouse on Sunday. He kept his head down and said nothing. He was waiting to be arraigned Sunday night.
Grebelskiy, of Forest Hills, Queens, was in extremely grave condition at Kings County Hospital Sunday. Relatives were too distraught to talk. Magnan’s family said the suspect left his cousin’s wedding in Woodbury about an hour and 15 minutes before he allegedly shot Grebelskiy.
“He was dancing,” said his aunt, Lisa Alexis. “Everybody was so happy.”
“He’s a beautiful person,” she added. “He’s not a maniac. He’s not a psycho.”
Cops have not charged Magnan in an earlier incident in which a gunman shot four people on a porch of a home on E. 54th St near Avenue O about 1:30 a.m.
There have been no arrests in that shooting. The victims are expected to survive. Sources told The News the crimes initially appeared connected, but there wasn’t enough evidence to support charges.
Before the livery cab shooting, a gunman pistol whipped two bouncers and demanded money at the eSavoy Lounge on Flatbush Ave., sources said.