Two Men Busted For Shooting Through Front Door of Murray Hill Home

42-18 163rd St. in Murray Hill. Photo via Google Maps.

By Christina Carrega

Two men face up to 25 years in prison for allegedly opening fire into a Murray Hill apartment and seriously injuring a woman who was laying in her bed, prosecutors announced on Monday.

Alec Bilciu and Jacob Yagudayev were allegedly involved in an ongoing dispute since November 2018 with a man who lives at the shooting scene on 163rd Street. Following the trio’s initial encounter, the man began receiving threatening phone calls from someone saying, “I’m going to find you,” prosecutors said.

On Jan. 12, Bilcui and Yagudayev showed up to the house. “Yo, what’s poppin’,” Bilcui allegedly said to the man with Yagudayev standing behind him on the doorstep. When the man recognized Bilcui and Yagudayev, he immediately shut and locked the apartment door, prosecutors said.

“The defendants are accused of shooting into an apartment and causing serious physical injury to an innocent woman inside. The injured victim almost lost her life as a result of the defendants’ alleged reckless actions,” said Queens County District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Four shots were fired into the apartment’s front door and side window and a 20-year-old woman was hit in the leg. The woman was taken to a local hospital for treatment for a shattered femur bone, prosecutors said.

Bilciu, 21 and Yagudayev, 22, were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court by Judge Gene Lopez on Sunday for first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and first-degree reckless endangerment.

The judge set bail for Yagudayev at $150,000 and $100,000 bail for Bilciu. They were both ordered to return to court on January 25. If convicted, both men face up to 25 years in prison.