Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the allegations against the suspect in connection with the Hempstead McDonald’s shooting. The story has been updated.
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. (PIX11) — A man accused in a deadly shooting of a 21-year-old man near a Long Island park last year has also been linked to another shooting outside a McDonald’s in Hempstead, authorities said Tuesday.
Gerson I. Hernandez was arrested Monday and charged with murder for allegedly shooting Walter Ochoa Jr., 21, to death in Uniondale on July 19, officials said. The suspect was also charged with gang assault in connection to a fatal shooting near a Hempstead McDonald’s on Sept. 14, police said.
In the September incident, Hector Manuel Valencia Gomez was with a group of friends near a dumpster in the parking lot close to the entrance to the McDonald’s on Peninsula Boulevard when he was shot multiple times at around 3:50 p.m., police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators believe the teen was the intended target. Hernandez did not pull the trigger in the incident but was at the scene, authorities said.
“He was just hanging around the parking area and these individuals came up behind him and started shooting,” a police spokesperson previously said of the victim’s demise.
In July, Ochoa was found with a fatal gunshot wound on Uniondale Avenue, near Uniondale Avenue Park, just before 9 p.m., police said. The victim died at the scene.
Hernandez was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.
