By Andrew Hackmack
On Aug. 23, police arrested James Strong, 18, of Queens Village. He was charged with the murder of 17-year-old Ricky Anthony Williams of Woodside, Queens.
Detective Lt. Mike Fleming announced the arrest at Nassau County Police headquarters in Mineola last Friday morning. He discussed the circumstances that led to the July 22 shooting at a Wyngate Drive home.
Fleming said there was an ongoing dispute between two groups of youths from Queens who occasionally run into each other at parties. That day, he said, 50 to 100 people gathered in the backyard of a home at 68 Wyngate Drive West for a birthday party, including members of the two groups.
³This was the first time that it escalated to the level that it did,² Fleming said of the shooting.
He said the two groups were not organized gangs, and described them as ³loose knit.² Strong and Williams knew each other, Fleming said, and Williams was the intended target of the shooting.
Police arrived at the home at about 11:15 p.m., responding to a report of shots fired. There they found Williams, who had been shot a number of times. He was transported to Franklin Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
Following a month-long investigation, Strong was arrested shortly after 10:30 p.m. last Thursday at the Yonkers Raceway Casino. Fleming said that Strong had been under surveillance by homicide detectives.
Strong was charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession and use of a firearm. He was arraigned the following day in First District Court, where he pleaded not guilty. Strong was ordered held in Nassau County Jail without bail.
The weapon used in the shooting has not been recovered.
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