A man was arrested for shooting and possibly paralyzing a security guard after he was booted from a Manhattan supportive housing residence where he made a living selling crack, prosecutors with the Manhattan DA’s office said Wednesday.
Shaqueal Parker was nabbed at his girlfriend’s apartment in upper Manhattan Tuesday and charged with attempted murder, assault and weapon possession for the March 30 shooting, police said. He was ordered held on bail set at $375,000 cash and $825,000 bond after pleading not guilty in Manhattan Criminal Court.
Parker, 31, is accused of opening fire at a Breaking Ground security guard who had helped enforce the ban keeping the suspect from visiting the Prince George facility located just a few blocks from Madison Square Park.
The bullet pierced the 49-year-old guard’s spine, according to prosecutors, who said the victim endured seven hours of surgery and may be paralyzed.
Moments before the shooting, Parker was seen outside the Prince George arguing with the guard, demanding to know when he would be allowed back in the building and saying he “needed to make a livelihood selling crack,” prosecutors said.
The suspect had previously asked tenants if he could crash in their apartments, even though facility rules forbade him from staying overnight, a Prince George resident said.
“He used to stay with me,” the tenant, who wished not to be named, told the Daily News last week. “He broke up with his girl, and I let him stay with me because he was in the street.”
An attorney for Parker said his client was staying with a girlfriend when he was arrested and told the judge he did not flee New York despite having out-of-state contacts.
“He was basically home, helping her care for (an) infant,” Anastasia Gorodilova, Parker’s public defender from Neighborhood Defender Services, said at his arraignment.
Parker has been diagnosed with and has been prescribed medication to treat significant mental health issues, his attorney said.
This wasn’t the first time Parker has been arrested for attacking someone at that location on E. 28th St. near Madison Ave., cops say.
At 2 a.m. on Aug. 27, 2024, Parker, who according to cops had a crack pipe in his pocket, allegedly flipped a bench a 55-year-old man was sitting on. The victim hit his head on the sidewalk, causing a cut. He was hospitalized in critical condition.
Parker was charged with assault and drug possession. The disposition of that case was not immediately clear Wednesday.
The suspect lives in NYCHA’s Douglass Houses on the Upper West Side, police said. His arraignment for the shooting was pending in Manhattan Criminal Court Wednesday.
Parker was also arrested in NYC in 2018 on a warrant out of Dade County, Fla., police said.
The guard had stepped out to get lunch and was coming out of a Whole Foods down the block from the Prince George when he was shot multiple times about 12:25 p.m.
The gunman, one witness said, opened fire “in broad daylight in front of 70 people.”
Medics rushed the victim to Bellevue Hospital, where he is still recovering.
Parker was restricted as a guest last June, meaning he was supposed to no longer be allowed to visit the building. Surveillance video provided to the NYPD by Breaking Ground helped police identify the suspect.
“He was restricted because he would jump around from apartment to apartment,” the tenant said. “If you visit another apartment, you’re supposed to go downstairs and register with the desk. He wasn’t doing that.”
With Colin Mixson, Molly Crane-Newman