Former NYPD officer gets jail time for firing gun on beach

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A former New York City police officer from Long Beach was sentenced last week to up to four years in prison for firing several shots from an illegally possessed weapon into the ocean in Long Beach in March.

The sentence was announced by Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly last Thursday.

David Afanador, 41, was drinking alcohol on the beach with friends while firing the shots into the ocean. He pled guilty in March to criminal possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to one year and four months to four years in prison.

Afanador “knew he could not legally possess a firearm, but still made the decision to drink with friends on the beach and recklessly fire a loaded gun several times into the ocean,” Donnelly said in a press release.

“We hope that this message sends a message to anyone thinking about illegally discharging a weapon in Nassau County in the name of fun,”she said.

Donnelly said Long Beach Police Officers responded to the call of several shots being fired near Franklin Boulevard and the beach. The police saw Afanador holding an alcoholic beverage with a Beretta pistol in a holster along with two loaded magazines, according to the release. He was with three other people.

Afanador presented his NYPD Officer ID card, along with his driver’s license, to the officers. His ID card was marked saying “no firearms,” according to the DA office’s release.

A co-defendant in the case, Jennifer Sonnick, also of Long Beach, was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.

Her case is pending.

 

–Brendan Carpenter