Love-triangle gun slay
School safety agent killed after birthday party
An off-duty NYPD school safety officer leaving a Queens nightclub after her 27th birthday celebration died in a wild street shootout between her current boyfriend and a jealous ex-lover early Thursday, police sources said.
Mye Johnson, mother to a 7-year-old boy, took a bullet to the torso and two more to her lower body in the 4:05 a.m. gunfight as she exited her party at Solletto on Steinway St. near Astoria Blvd. North, said Commanding Officer of Detective Borough Queens North Julie Morrill.
Johnson’s former beau was standing outside the club when she came out alongside her new boyfriend — with the confrontation between the two men escalating from verbal to physical before both pulled their guns and opened fire, said a police source.
The new boyfriend was shot and wounded, while the ex-boyfriend apparently fled uninjured and drove across the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, the source said.
In a bizarre twist, the murder suspect driving a white BMW was stopped by Garden State police for a traffic violation and turned loose because the local cops were unaware of the killing, according to the source.
Johnson, caught in the crossfire, was pronounced dead at Mount Sinai Queens hospital — leaving family members too distraught to speak about the shooting.
“We just want some peace,” said male relative at the victim’s home. “Not even 24 hours yet.”
Morrill said “multiple persons fired shots” in the early morning darkness as a female friend of the victim also took a bullet to the left leg, while the current boyfriend was shot in the left shoulder and the buttocks. Both were taken to Mount Sinai in stable condition.
The source indicated the surviving woman was collateral damage as the boyfriends old and new exchanged bullets.
The slain woman and a larger group of friends were partying at the club, with Morrill saying investigators were investigating if the dispute started inside and then spilled outside.
“There is an enormous amount of video being viewed right now, including the body cameras of the first officers [on the scene], video from in front of the club and other areas near the location,’ said Morrill, adding no guns were fired inside the building.
Lola Obe, commanding officer of the school safety division, said fellow officers were offering consolation to relatives of their slain colleague.
“It’s especially troubling since it’s, you know, a couple of days before Christmas,” she said. “We are currently visiting with the family and giving them as much support as we possibly can.”
According to the NYPD, the number of murders in 2021 has already eclipsed last year’s death toll with a week to go. Homicides were at 464 through Dec. 19, compared to 452 in 2020. Police reported a surge in the last 28 days, with 35 murders compared to 20 across the same stretch of last year.