A Long Island man has been convicted of fatally shooting his longtime friend in 2023, prosecutors announced Friday.
James Brown, 45, is accused of killing Umar Elquhir, also 45, following a physical altercation near Brown’s residence on the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic on Nov. 7, 2023.
Video surveillance footage from outside Brown’s home shows Elquhir leaving after the two men got into a fight earlier in the evening, officials said.
About two hours later, Elquhir was seen driving back to the scene and parking outside Brown’s home.
Brown then came out of the residence and walked toward the victim’s car “while repeatedly yelling, ‘You wanna die?’” He then fired approximately nine shots into the vehicle while his friend was sitting in the driver’s seat, prosecutors said.
As the defendant walked back to his house, the victim got out of his car and collapsed onto the ground.
When Suffolk County police officers arrived at the scene, they found the victim on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds. He was taken to Long Island Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
When testifying at trial, Brown claimed he was acting in self-defense and that he was scared for his life, but a jury didn’t believe him.
On Friday, he was convicted of one count of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon.
Brown, who had previously served a five-year sentence for a 2021 assault conviction, is due back in court for sentencing on June 16, when he could be sentenced to up to life in prison.
“This previously convicted felon killed his longtime friend by shooting him multiple times,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said Friday, adding his office will seek a sentence that “ensures [he] can no longer hurt other Suffolk County residents.”
