More surveillance photos of the masked assailant who chased a 21-year-old woman into her Queens home before mercilessly gunning her down were released Thursday by police, who again asked for the public’s help in tracking down the heartless killer.
Dashanna Donovan, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene after cops found her with a gunshot wound to the head in her apartment on 96th St. near Astoria Blvd. in East Elmhurst around 9:20 p.m. on Sept. 12.
“He had a motive. He knew why. He knew what he was doing,” Donovan’s mother, Helena Hypolite, said of her daughter’s attacker.
“My daughter didn’t deserve this, and no one does. Those who didn’t give life should not have the power to take it away. It is selfish.”
Donovan had just gotten off work at McDonald’s and was sitting outside her home, talking on the phone with a friend before the fatal confrontation, Hypolite said police told her. “She was scared, because she run,” Hypolite said.
“She was sitting in the yard on the phone. She saw the gentleman come in with the mask on. And she ran in the house and he ran behind her. And then she was shot in the bathroom,” Hypolite said.
Police confirmed Donovan was found crumpled in the bathroom doorway, suggesting she was trying to escape her attacker when she was gunned down.
The gunman fired multiple shots, with police later recovering numerous shell casings at the scene.
Donovan moved into the apartment, where she lived with her aunt, about three months ago, her mother said. She had recently moved back to New York after living for a year with her father in South Carolina. “She just moved back here from South Carolina. So I don’t know what friends she had made, ex-friends she might have, you know,” Hypolite said.
Cops released an initial batch of photos of the suspect, who appeared to be in his 20s, on Tuesday, but his face was partially obscured.
Photos released Thursday showed the suspect’s full face. At the time he was wearing a blue hoodie, black pants and black sneakers and black ski mask, and carrying a black backpack.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.
