Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Thursday, Sept. 19, that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting a man in the emergency room waiting area of Jacobi Medical Center in Morris Park, sending patients and hospital staff running for their lives.

 

Reacting to the announcement, Clark said, “The defendant opened fire inside Jacobi’s emergency room, wounding one man and showing complete disregard for the patients and staff, with one bullet lodging in a wall close to a woman holding a baby. The defendant’s violent actions have now been answered with a substantial prison sentence.”

 

She said the defendant, Keber Martinez, 25, formerly of Beach Avenue in The Bronx, was sentenced on Thursday to 12 years in prison and five years post-release supervision on one count of first-degree assault by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Jeanette Rodriguez-Morick. She said Martinez pleaded guilty to that charge on Aug. 28.

 

As reported by Norwood News at the time, and according to the investigation, on Jan. 25, 2022, the defendant was inside the hospital emergency room and shot at the 35-year-old victim four times, striking him once in the left arm causing him to bleed profusely. Martinez fled the hospital after the shooting and was arrested in Harlem. The attack was captured on hospital surveillance video.

 

The case was prosecuted by both Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney Paul G. Irace and Major Case Assistant District Attorney Scott G. McDonald of Trial Bureau 60, under the supervision of Michael Schordine, deputy chief of Trial Bureau 60, Susanna Imbo, chief of Trial Bureau 60, and under the overall supervision of James Brennan, deputy chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, chief of the Trial Division.

 

Clark thanked Bryan McRinna, Trial Bureau 60 professional staff supervisor, Stalin Crespo, video technician with the Bronx District Attorney’s Office video unit for their assistance in the case. She also thanked NYPD Detective Robinson Martinez of the 49th Precinct Detective Squad, retired commanding officer of the Bronx Homicide Squad, Lt. William O’Toole, as well as detectives from Bronx Homicide, and NYPD officers and detectives who responded to the scene.