On the evening of November 17, 2015, Thomas Lacolla, a 27-year-old male from Riverhead, New York, was fatally shot while sitting in a car in the nearby hamlet of Riverside. The shooting occurred at approximately 9:37 p.m. outside a residence on Old Quogue Road. Multiple shots were fired into the vehicle, and Lacolla was pronounced dead at the scene.
The initial investigation was handled by the Suffolk County homicide squad, who noted that numerous 911 calls were made after the gunfire erupted, with some witnesses reporting hearing as many as 20 to 30 shots.
It was later determined that Lacolla was not the intended victim of the shooting. He was tragically in the wrong place at the wrong time, sitting in a car that belonged to the actual target, a rival gang member. The intended victim, Trendell Walker, was not in the vehicle when the shooting occurred. The attack was orchestrated by members of the 'Red Stone Gorilla' set of the Bloods street gang, who had a standing order to kill the rival member.
The investigation into Thomas Lacolla's murder led to several arrests and convictions. Jason Langhorn, an associate of the Bloods gang, was identified as one of the shooters. He, along with two other gang members, fired 39 shots into the vehicle, using firearms that included an assault rifle. In August 2021, Langhorn pleaded guilty to a firearms-related murder charge. Subsequently, in November 2022, he was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Terrill Latney, who acted as the getaway driver for the shooters, also faced justice. He pleaded guilty to racketeering charges that included his participation in Lacolla's murder and conspiring to distribute narcotics. For his role in the crime, Latney was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The leader of the gang, Jimmy Dean, who allegedly ordered the killing, was also indicted and pleaded guilty to a racketeering charge. In a related case, Nicholas Sokol was arrested and charged with witness tampering after he threatened a cooperating witness in the Lacolla murder investigation.
