Dog walker and her pet gunned down at Brooklyn bodega by serial criminal with 19 prior arrests 


A career criminal with 19 prior arrests and three assault convictions has become the latest face of NYC’s soaring crime wave after he was charged with the murder of an innocent mom-of-four shot dead while walking her dog to a Brooklyn bodega.   

Officers tracked down Namel Colon, 36, at a Chinese restaurant in Queens after the suspect evaded capture for nearly two months following the January 2 shooting inside Salim Smoke Shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant that left dogwalker Jennifer Ynoa, 36, and her year-old pet pit bull dead.

Colon, who lives in Manhattan’s Lower East Side according to public records, was subsequently cuffed and hauled to the borough’s 79th Precinct, where he was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon, police said. 

It is not clear if Colon was out on bail, parole, or conditional release at the time of the attack, and it is unknown how he managed to evade investigators for seven weeks after the shooting. 

But he was previously paroled after being jailed three times for assault, as New York state faces questions over its no bail policy critics have warned is flooding the streets with dangerous criminals, many of whom then reoffend. 

New York cops arrested career criminal Namel Colon, pictured in security footage captured at the scene, Tuesday in connection with the incident. Records show that Colon is serial criminal with 19 prior arrests with 11 felony charges, including three felony assaults for which he served time and was released early on parole or conditional release

New York cops arrested career criminal Namel Colon, pictured in security footage captured at the scene, Tuesday in connection with the incident. Records show that Colon is serial criminal with 19 prior arrests with 11 felony charges, including three felony assaults for which he served time and was released early on parole or conditional release

Jennifer Ynoa, 36, a mother of four, was gunned down by the suspect inside a Brooklyn deli last month, when he opened fire at another customer inside the store

Jennifer Ynoa, 36, a mother of four, was gunned down by the suspect inside a Brooklyn deli last month, when he opened fire at another customer inside the store

Her one-year-old pit bull, Blue, was also killed during the January 2 attack

Her one-year-old pit bull, Blue, was also killed during the January 2 attack

Records show that Colon is serial criminal with 19 prior arrests with 11 felony charges, including three felony assaults for which he served time and was released early on parole or conditional release.

Conditional release refers to when a prisoner is released from jail early and has similar responsibilities as a parolee. 

Ynoa, a mother of four who lived two blocks away from the deli where she was shot, was walking her dog, Blue, when she was killed the night of January 2, her boyfriend Carlton Busch, 46, said after the incident.

Footage shows Ynoa and her dog inside the store just before the shooting, while a man though to be the intended target, seen at the bottom right of the image, looks on eating a bag of chips

Footage shows Ynoa and her dog inside the store just before the shooting, while a man though to be the intended target, seen at the bottom right of the image, looks on eating a bag of chips

The suspect began opening fire before he entered the store. Pictured here are Ynoa and the other man, who was not injured refused to cooperate with police when questioned, react to the hail of gunfire

The suspect began opening fire before he entered the store. Pictured here are Ynoa and the other man, who was not injured refused to cooperate with police when questioned, react to the hail of gunfire

‘I’ve been angry. I’ve been a lot of ways about this. I lost my wife and my dog,’ Busch told the Daily News Tuesday, following the arrest. ‘That was my best friend. We had a family and needless to say, [the arrest] is a bit anticlimactic.’ 

Busch told the paper Colon is ‘gonna have to think about his own answers’ regarding his alleged part in the murder. ‘And luckily he gets to live with his answers at least.’

‘She had children,’ he went on. ‘She had people that loved and cared for her and everything and now they took the life out of her. 

Pictured is Salim Smoke Shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant shortly after the shooting, where no one else, including Colon's intended target who refused to talk to police, was harmed

Pictured is Salim Smoke Shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant shortly after the shooting, where no one else, including Colon’s intended target who refused to talk to police, was harmed

‘That’s not gonna fit any punishment.’

Busch said Ynoa’s children, are now staying with their aunt.

Cops say Ynoa was likely not the shooter’s intended target, after analyzing surveillance footage captured by a security camera at the store, saying another man inside the store at the time was likely the shooter’s intended target, cops said. 

The suspect believed to be Colon can be seen clearly in the security footage, police say, adding that the shooter was also recorded arriving in front of the store in a red four-door sedan and calmly crossing the street before immediately opening fire.

Ynoa was shot in the head and transported to nearby Brooklyn Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Her dog died at the scene, police said. 

Camera footage shows a man thought to be Colon hopping into the car and driving off.

No one else was struck by the hail of indiscriminate gunfire, including store staff and the suspect’s suspected intended target.

After the attack, the man thought to be Colon’s mark, who fled the scene following the attack and has yet to be identified by police, was taken by officers for question, during which time he refused to cooperate with officers and called for a lawyer, cops said. 

Colon’s criminal record shows he had 19 prior arrests with 11 felonies, including burglary, robbery and assault.

Ynoa is the latest face to fall victim to New York City’s surging crime wave, which has seen a nearly 50 percent spike in criminal incidents in the city this year when compared to the same span in 2021.  

It is not clear if Colon was out on bail, parole, or conditional release at the time of the attack, and it is unknown how he managed to evade investigators for seven weeks after the shooting

It is not clear if Colon was out on bail, parole, or conditional release at the time of the attack, and it is unknown how he managed to evade investigators for seven weeks after the shooting

Ynoa is the latest to fall victim to New York City's surging crime wave, which has seen a nearly 50 percent spike in criminal incidents in the city this year when compared to the same span in 2021. Felony assaults have increased by more than 20 percent, while shootings are up by a marked 30 percent

Ynoa is the latest to fall victim to New York City’s surging crime wave, which has seen a nearly 50 percent spike in criminal incidents in the city this year when compared to the same span in 2021. Felony assaults have increased by more than 20 percent, while shootings are up by a marked 30 percent

Felony assaults have increased by more than 20 percent, NYPD data shows, with 2,994 incidents recorded this year, compared to 2,477 in 2021.

Shootings are also up from last year by a marked 30 percent, with 174 recorded incidents in the past seven weeks. There were 133 shootings in the same span last year.  

Murders have also seen a slight swell, with the NYPD charting a 3.8 percent increase from 2021.   

Rapes and robberies, meanwhile, have surged, by 42 and 32 percent, respectively.

A recent report released earlier this month by the NYPD showed that nearly every police precinct in New York City has seen spikes in crime this year – including five in which the rate has doubled, new data from the New York Police Department shows.

Queens was hit particularly hard by the influx of incidents, seeing a nearly 150 percent increase in overall crime.  

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