A grand jury indictment unsealed in Suffolk County has put a 19-year-old from Wyandanch at the centre of one of Long Island's most alarming transit cases of the year. Jahmez Cureton was arraigned on Thursday, November 5, on an indictment charging him with second-degree attempted murder and six other counts over a shooting on the Bellport station platform of the Long Island Rail Road in the early hours of October 9 — a shooting in which, prosecutors say, a single bullet passed through the shoulder of the teenager it was allegedly aimed at and then struck a second passenger who had nothing to do with the dispute.

Source: Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, via Long Island reporting

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced the indictment on November 5. Two other young men are charged alongside Cureton with second-degree attempted murder: Javar Baskerville, 18, of Huntington, and a 17-year-old who has not been named because of his age. All three are alleged by prosecutors to be members of the Crips gang, and all three are presumed innocent unless proven guilty. PIX11, reporting the same announcement, confirmed the three attempted-murder cases and the December 10 court date for Cureton.

Source: PIX11

Eighty minutes on the train, seconds on the platform

According to the district attorney's account, the night began at Jamaica Station in Queens. At approximately 1:05 a.m. on October 9, Cureton, Baskerville, the 17-year-old and another associate boarded an eastbound Long Island Rail Road train. During the ride, prosecutors say, the group spotted a young man they regarded as a rival gang member travelling in the same train.

What prosecutors describe next is the detail that has drawn the most attention: the group allegedly put on masks and gloves while still aboard and positioned themselves near an exit door so they could see exactly where the perceived rival got off. The train pulled into Bellport station, in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, at approximately 2:25 a.m. The defendants and their associate got out and walked down the platform's exit ramp. When the rival also stepped off the train, Cureton allegedly reached for a firearm, turned around and ran back toward the platform, then opened fire.

Prosecutors say Cureton's shot struck the 17-year-old rival in the right shoulder — and that the same bullet passed through and hit another Long Island Rail Road passenger, who was not involved in the confrontation, in the right shoulder as well. Both wounded men were taken to a local hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening, and both were later released. No other injuries were reported on the platform.

The mask at Deer Park, and three separate arrests

The investigation was led by Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Detective Kristin Riker. Cureton was arrested four days after the shooting, on October 13, at the Deer Park LIRR station — another stop on the same rail network — where investigators recovered a gray-and-blue camouflage mask that prosecutors allege he wore during the shooting. Baskerville was arrested later, on October 28, outside a residence in Bellport, and was arraigned the next day before District Court Judge Evan Zuckerman on a second-degree attempted-murder charge. Zuckerman set his bail at $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond or $2.5 million partially secured bond; he is due back in court on November 25, is represented by the Legal Aid Society, and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

The youngest defendant was arrested on October 29 in an unusual place: Stony Brook University Hospital, where prosecutors say he was being treated for injuries he allegedly sustained in a separate gang-related shooting. He was arraigned on October 31 before District Court Judge John B. Zollo on a second-degree attempted-murder charge, with bail set at the same levels as Baskerville's — $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond or $2.5 million partially secured. He is due back in court on November 20, is represented by attorney Evan Sugar, and also faces up to 25 years if convicted. His name is withheld because he is 17.

Why a platform shooting rattles the whole railroad

Bellport is a small hamlet station on the LIRR's Montauk Branch, the kind of quiet, unstaffed late-night stop used by shift workers, students and families across Suffolk County — including the large South Asian and Punjabi communities who live along the Babylon and Montauk corridors and depend on the railroad for pre-dawn and after-midnight commutes into New York City. A shooting at 2:25 a.m., on a platform with no staff and few passengers, lands differently from a city-centre incident: there is nowhere to go, and help is a train ride away. The allegation that the suspects rode the same train as their target for more than an hour before acting is the part of the case that transit riders across Long Island are likely to remember.

Prosecutors from the district attorney's Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau — Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Collado is handling the cases — have framed the shooting as gang violence carried onto public transit, rather than a random attack. That framing matters for what riders can expect next: gang cases in Suffolk County are typically prosecuted as multi-defendant enterprises, which is why the three arrests were staggered across more than two weeks and why evidence such as the camouflage mask recovered at Deer Park station features so prominently in the announcement.

What happens next

Cureton's indictment lists seven counts in all: second-degree attempted murder, first-degree attempted assault, two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, and first-degree reckless endangerment. Supreme Court Justice Steven A. Pilewski ordered him held without bail at the November 5 arraignment; he is represented by attorney Pete Mayer and returns to court on December 10. With Baskerville due on November 25 and the 17-year-old defendant due on November 20, all three cases move through Suffolk County courts over the next five weeks. The charges against all three are allegations set out in indictments and complaints; none has been convicted, and each is presumed innocent until proven guilty.