Cops: Feud sparks shooting of teen, 16, in Hempstead

A long-standing neighborhood feud between teenagers from opposite sides of Hempstead led to the shooting of a 16-year-old girl after a church party, police said Tuesday.

Tuesday, two teenage boys were ordered jailed without bail in the Sunday shooting, which prosecutors said left the girl hospitalized with a bullet wound to the abdomen and a punctured colon. The girl, whose name is being withheld by Newsday because of her age, remains hospitalized.

The suspects, Daniel Duke, 17, and Antoine Redfern, 16, are from Hempstead's Heights section and the victim and her friends are from the village's Parkside section. The shooting happened at Baldwin Road and East Marshall Street. Redfern shot the girl, and Duke was the getaway driver, prosecutor Mike Sabolinski told the judge, Gary F. Knobel, at the pair's arraignment Tuesday at First District Court.

Charges against Redfern include criminal use of a firearm, felony assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Duke is charged with felony assault.

The tension began hours earlier on Saturday during a crowded birthday party at First Church Baldwin United Methodist on Merrick Road. At one point during the affair, police were summoned to the church after pushing and shoving led to fistfighting, said Det. Lt. Raymond Coté of Nassau's Third Squad.

After the party was broken up, Duke, of 217 Amherst St., was driving in a Nissan Pathfinder and passed a group consisting of some of those who had been fighting, he told police, according to court records.

"As I was driving by them, some boy ran into the street and threw a brick at my truck," Duke said in a statement.

A short time later, police said, Redfern got out of the vehicle and fired about a half dozen times, striking the girl once. Police said they have not recovered the weapon.

In a separate statement to police, Redfern, of 177 Henry St., claimed another passenger in the Pathfinder was the shooter. Both suspects told police they were in the vehicle, according to court records.

At the arraignment, Redfern's aunt disputed the veracity of the witnesses, who identified her nephew as the shooter.

After an investigation by case detectives Charlie DeCaro and Ronnie Lipson, the suspects were arrested between 11:40 p.m. Monday and 12:05 a.m. Tuesday at their homes. Parkside is south of Peninsula Boulevard, and the Heights is north of Fulton and east of Franklin Avenue.