The suspect arrested for shooting Jets cornerback Kris Boyd in Midtown was hiding out in his girlfriend’s college dorm when he was nabbed in upstate New York, police sources said Tuesday.
Surveillance video and social media posts “led to other people” who helped cops identify the suspect and zero in on his location in Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo, a police source said.
A Crime Stoppers tip also helped cops identify the suspect, who was flopping with his girlfriend in university housing for a local college when a team of U.S. marshals took him into custody Monday.
Cops transported the suspect to Manhattan’s Midtown South Precinct on Tuesday, where he was expected to be charged with the Nov. 16 shooting of Boyd outside of Sei Less, a popular W. 38th St. Asian fusion hot spot that caters to sports stars, celebrities, and other wealthy clientele.
He’s expected to face charges of attempted murder and assault, police said.
The suspect lives in the Bronx and has four prior arrests, including one last year for reckless endangerment and a 2018 robbery arrest as a juvenile delinquent that was sealed, law enforcement sources said.
The gunman was part of a group outside the eatery who “chirped” Boyd and his companions about their stylish clothes, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press briefing last month.
Boyd, teammates Irvin Charles and Jamien Sherwood and a friend from Boyd’s native Texas pulled up to the restaurant in a Cadillac Escalade, Kenny said. As they entered the restaurant, a group of four to five men standing outside “begin to ‘chirp’ them about the clothing that they’re wearing, and are asking them, ‘What, do you think you’re better than us?’” Kenny said.
Boyd had intended to celebrate his friend’s birthday but he and his entourage left about 10 minutes later after deciding they didn’t like the “vibe,” Kenny said.
As they left, the same group, who had dined at Sei Less earlier that evening, again began to “verbally insult them, and once again, questioning their clothing,” Kenny said.
The taunts sparked an argument that quickly escalated into an all-out brawl, during which one of the fighters pulled a gun and fired off two rounds.
One of the shots hit Boyd, who was rushed to Bellevue Hospital with a bullet lodged near his right lung. He was released from the hospital after a few days, but returned over Thanksgiving after facing a setback in his recovery, he posted on social media.
The gunman was last seen running east on W. 38th St. carrying a black bookbag before turning on Broadway toward W. 36th St., cops said.
Investigators released surveillance footage of the suspected gunman following the shooting and asked the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.
The suspect’s mother was shocked to learn that her son was expected to be charged in Boyd’s shooting.
“I don’t know what he was doing up in Amherst,“ she told a Daily News reporter Monday at her Bronx apartment. “This is the first thing I’m hearing about it. Nobody called me.”
The suspect is a high school graduate currently enrolled in college studying business, said the suspect’s mother, who declined to answer questions about her son’s previous arrests.
“My son do this? No,” she said. “He is an amazing child. He is an amazing son, brother and kid. This is shocking.“
