SHATTERING
Trial in Bryant Pk. rink shoot that paralyzed teen
THE TEEN hit by a stray bullet at the Bryant Park ice skating rink in 2013 will likely never walk again and was confined to a hospital bed for nine months just this year.
“Adonis Mera is now a paraplegic,” prosecutor James Lin told a Manhattan jury in opening statements at the trial of alleged shooter Cory Dunton Thursday.
Mera (photo), who was 14 when he was shot, still has a bullet lodged in his back because doctors fear that removing it could worsen his condition.
Dunton was not aiming for Mera on Nov. 9, 2013, but was firing at 20-year-old Javier Contreras, whose pricey green Marmot parka he had an eye for.
“Yo,” Dunton allegedly barked from the sidelines at the stranger on skates, a regular at the rink. “Run that sh--.”
“It was slang for give me your stuff,” Lin explained at Dunton’s attempted murder trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Twice that night, Contreras refused Dunton’s brazen demand and challenged him to “come and get it.”
On the second attempt, Dunton allegedly pulled out a small handgun and began blasting away toward Contreras at the crowded venue where the crowd would swell to around 200 people.
Contreras was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he underwent surgery but was unable to work his job at a fish market for months, needed extensive therapy to regain use of his hand and still suffers from lasting injuries.
“His middle finger on his right hand will never be the same again,” Lin argued. “It is forever crooked in an unnatural way.”
There was a bullet that remained in his right leg but was not removed until summer 2014 “because it had caused an infection, his skin and flesh to turn purple.”
“He still suffers anxiety attacks. He doesn’t skate anymore,” Lin said.
Mera, another avid skater who did not personally know his fellow victim, has not fared as well.
“That bullet cut Adonis down, caused him to fall on the ice,” Lin said.
He wasn’t even aware of the scuffle involving Dunton and Contreras.
“All Adonis knew was that one moment he was skating and the next he was lying on the ice,” Lin said. “He couldn’t move his legs. He couldn’t feel his legs.”
If convicted on the top counts, Dunton, 19, faces up to 25 years in prison.