- Dionicio Calderon Oseguera was sentenced to life in prison for a shooting at a Long Island grocery store.
- He was found guilty of murder and other charges and admitted to the shooting.
- The shooting resulted in two deaths and two critical injuries.
Dionicio Calderon Oseguera was sentenced to 75 years to life in prison for opening fire on several people inside a Long Island (NY) grocery store, killing the owner and a customer, and critically wounding two others.
Calderon, 65, was sentenced yesterday in Suffolk County Court after being found guilty in February of murder and other charges stemming from the December 2020 shooting at the La Vaquita Hispanic bodega in Copiague.
Calderon took the stand at his trial and admitted to shooting the victims but said he had been threatened. On cross-examination, he testified that he had purchased the gun illegally on the street and acknowledged that no one else in the store was armed, the Daily Voice reviewed.
“It is difficult even to comprehend the terror the victims faced in this case when this defendant opened fire,” District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement. “This is a just sentence for the crimes he committed, and now the defendant will have to live with the consequences of his ruthless actions while in prison for the rest of his life.”
Prosecutors said Calderon entered the business shortly after 6 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2020. After drinking for a while, and without warning, he pulled out a 9mm pistol and began shooting several people.
The first victim was Manuel Cruz Hernández, 47, a customer. Calderón shot him several times in the head and body, killing him. He then pointed the gun at the store owner, Bolivar Rodriguez, 61, and shot him once in the head.
According to investigators, Calderon continued to fire his gun and wounded two other customers: Daniel Acosta, 40, who was shot in the torso, and Juan Avila Roque (30), shot in the left arm and chest. Both men spent almost two weeks in the hospital.
Prosecutors said Calderon was arrested hours after the shooting as he attempted to leave his home. Officers reportedly found him with cash, jewelry, and a suitcase full of clothes. He was still wearing the sweatshirt he had on during the homicides, which tested positive for gunshot residue.
During a subsequent search of his home, police found the 9mm handgun used in the shootings hidden.
In New York, warehouses’ interiors and surrounding areas are often crime scenes, both robberies and homicides. NYPD has warned since last year of increasing insecurity in businesses and warehouses, including violent attacks on employees and owners.
In early March, a 67-year-old grocery store worker was shot to death during an apparent robbery last night on the Upper East Side, considered a “safe” area in Manhattan. In February, a man shot his co-worker in the head in front of a child inside a Buffalo (NY) bodega, calmly eating a bite and sitting in a chair, local police reported.
In a recent statement, the advocacy group Collective Action to Protect Our Stores(CAPS-NY), representing nearly 4,000 establishments, including supermarkets and bodegas in the New York metropolitan area, said that politicians must do more to protect owners and workers.
Many owners have opted to reduce hours and lock up merchandise in the face of a spike in thefts from stores, pharmacies, and warehouses, including deadly attacks on employees and customers.