In the early morning hours of October 30, 2016, violence shattered the quiet of a Jamaica, Queens street corner, leaving one man dead. Niheen Donigan, a 36-year-old Black man, was standing with a group of people near the intersection of 109th Avenue and 171st Street at approximately 2:18 a.m. when an unidentified shooter opened fire. Donigan was struck in the head in the sudden barrage of bullets.
Emergency services were quickly summoned to the chaotic scene.
Paramedics rushed the critically injured Donigan to Jamaica Hospital, but his wound proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced dead upon arrival. No one else in the group was reported to have been injured in the incident. The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear to investigators who began the arduous task of piecing together the events that led to Donigan's death.
The investigation into the homicide progressed swiftly, and just a few days later, on November 2, 2016, police made an arrest. Moses Blake was taken into custody in connection with the fatal shooting. He was subsequently charged with second-degree murder, two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, and one count of false personation.
Donigan himself had a history with the criminal justice system. Records indicated that in April 2002, he was convicted of first-degree manslaughter for his role in a deadly shooting that occurred in 2001. He served a decade in prison for that crime and was released on parole in July 2012, just over four years before his own life was cut short by gunfire on a Queens street.
