Cops: Teen charged with murder of Freeport man

A 17-year-old from the Bronx was ordered held without bail Monday on a charge of killing a Freeport man during a street robbery in Hempstead.

Jazz Murphy of 820 E. 180th St. was arraigned Monday in First District Court in Hempstead on a charge of second-degree murder in the shooting of Leonard Thames, 34.

Murphy approached Thames to rob him about 8:10 p.m. Sunday at the corner of Linden Avenue and Linden Place at about 8:10 p.m., police said.

A felony complaint filed by prosecutors said Murphy shot the man "once in the back and a second time in the head during the commission of a robbery."

Murphy then ran off without getting anything from Thames and threw away his gun as a Hempstead Village police officer tried to stop him, said Nassau homicide Det. Sgt. Gregg Lesmeister.

"He was seen discarding the weapon by a Hempstead police officer, who arrested him and recovered the weapon," Lesmeister said.

The victim was taken to Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre, where he was pronounced dead at 8:40 p.m. by hospital staff, police said.