Hempstead man sentenced for apartment building shooting

A 51-year-old Hempstead man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison and five years post-release supervision for the 2020 ambush shooting at an apartment building that left a 26-year-old male victim "seriously" injured, officials said.

The office of Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced the sentencing Thursday of Arem Rodgers, who pleaded guilty Sept. 6 before Judge Terence Murphy to charges including second-degree attempted murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

As part of the announcement, prosecutors released a previously redacted surveillance video of the incident caught by security cameras at the apartment building at 109 Terrace Avenue.

Prosecutors said that footage, shot March 6, 2020, at about 8:11 p.m. in the vestibule of the building shows Rodgers as he "fire approximately 11 rounds from a loaded handgun through a glass door" — striking the 26-year-old victim seven times in the legs, shoulder, chest and spine.

The victim survived but suffered "serious physical injuries," the district attorney's office said.

The first portion of the brief surveillance footage shows the lower half of the assailant walking up steps to the outside of the interior glass door — and firing a hail of bullets that puncture holes through the glass, shattering it. The second half of the footage shows the victim coming down a flight of stairs to the first floor just as the figure outside the door begins firing the handgun — the victim, wearing a heavy winter coating, leaping over the stair rail and running back into the interior hall in an effort to escape the sudden burst of gunfire.

Prosecutors said the victim suffered damage to major organs, three fractured ribs and a left lung laceration in the shooting.

Rodgers, whom prosecutors said fled to a nearby building, was arrested May 18, 2020, in Mineola by Nassau County police officers, officials said.

"This defendant calmly ambushed his victim, firing off 11 rounds in a calculated attempt on the man's life," Donnelly said in a statement Thursday, adding: "After being shot seven times, and sustaining serious physical injuries, the victim miraculously survived. Arem Rodgers tried to take a life and now will suffer the consequences of his actions."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”