BUST IN KILLING
Ex-con nabbed in shoot of pregnant ex-girlfriend
After a four-day manhunt, the NYPD on Thursday nabbed an ex-con accused of fatally shooting his pregnant ex-girlfriend as she left a Harlem baby shower with her new boyfriend.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced the arrest of Justin Soriano, 40, for the killing of Shanice Young at a press conference.
“Our hope here is that this apprehension begins the process of closure for the family and just as important for the community for this terrible, terrible crime,” Shea said.
Young, 31, was shot in the head in front of her two children Sunday.
Her ex had been feuding in recent weeks with her current beau over who was the father of her unborn child, police sources said. She was due to have her baby this week, according to heartbroken relatives.
“He’s Satan,” said Young’s father, Thurman Young. “Say that’s the one word I used to describe him.”
Young said the top charge against Soriano, second-degree murder, wasn’t enough, and wouldn’t bring back his daughter.
“Is that all?” Young said of the murder charge, his voice rising. “He should be charged with two counts of murder. That baby inside her was a person. That baby was going to live.”
Cops released Soriano’s image to the media on Tuesday and asked the public’s help tracking him down.
Soriano was grabbed in the Bronx early Thursday, officials said. He was charged with murder, menacing, weapon possession and acting in a manner injurious to a child.
He held his head up defiantly as he was walked out of the 32nd Precinct stationhouse in handcuffs and leg shackles by NYPD detectives just after 4 p.m. to appear in court.
Dressed in black sweats, Soriano ignored questions from reporters and cries of “shame” from a crowd of neighborhood residents.
Soriano served time for narcotics possession in 2008, and for sale of a controlled substance in 2011, public records show.
He was released from prison in 2018 and his parole ended in June 2020. He has 17 total prior arrests, police said Thursday, on charges including drugs, gun possession and resisting arrest.
On Sunday, Young and her boyfriend were double-parked outside her apartment building on W. 128th St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. about 1:15 a.m., carrying presents from the baby shower, when Soriano showed up, sources said.
They argued, and Soriano pulled out a gun.
He chased the boyfriend down a stairwell into the building basement, up a different stairwell, back into a lobby and then out of the building, sources said.
After her boyfriend got away, sources said, Young confronted Soriano and asked: “Why are doing this?”
“Why am I doing what?” Soriano answered.
He then fired three times, shooting Young in the head, sources said. Young’s two daughters, ages 15 and 6, watched in horror from the car as EMS rushed their mother to Harlem Hospital, where she died.
Young’s relationship with Soriano fell apart after he cheated on her — but Soriano still became enraged after she found a new boyfriend, her father told The News. She had three orders of protection against her ex since their split, her dad said.