In the summer of 2016, a promising young life was tragically cut short on a street in the Bronx. Dontay Gordon, a 17-year-old male, was killed in a drive-by shooting on the evening of August 17, 2016. The incident occurred around 9:15 p.m. near the intersection of College Avenue and East 170th Street in the Claremont Village neighborhood. Gordon was an aspiring rapper and dancer who was about to begin his senior year at Renaissance High School.
His father described him as a well-loved person in the neighborhood who was focused on his music. Tragically, this was the second son the family had lost to gun violence; Dontay's older brother had been fatally shot six years earlier just a block away.
On that fateful August evening, Gordon was with a 21-year-old friend when a car, later identified as a stolen livery cab, drove by. Someone inside the vehicle opened fire, striking Gordon in the chest and his friend in the stomach. Both victims were rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where Dontay Gordon was pronounced dead. His friend was listed in critical but stable condition. Authorities released surveillance footage of the vehicle, described as a late-model Lincoln Town Car, in an appeal to the public for information. Dontay's father believes his son was not the intended target of the shooting.
The investigation into the senseless killing continued for several years. In 2019, a significant break in the case led to the arrest of Adrian Medina. Investigators determined that Medina was the driver of the stolen car from which the fatal shots were fired. In June 2023, Medina pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. On August 28, 2023, a Bronx Supreme Court Justice sentenced Adrian Medina, then 26, to 15 years in prison, to be followed by five years of post-release supervision. While the driver was brought to justice, the individual who actually fired the gun had not been apprehended as of the time of Medina's sentencing.
