Paublo Torres is accused of turning the El Catracho sports bar in Hollis into a shooting gallery, killing his half-brother and wounding the manager in the early morning of Saturday, Feb. 21.
Photo via Google Maps
A Queens grand jury indicted a South Jamaica man on charges related to the fatal shooting of his half-brother at a crowded Hollis sports bar in February.
Paublo Torre, 21, who is also known as Pablo Nunez and Pablo Torres, was arraigned in Queens Supreme Court on Friday on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree, assault, weapon possession and other crimes for fatally shooting 34-year-old Denis Enriquez Reyes-Nunez. The bar manager was also wounded in the shooting.
Paublo Torres, 21, of South Jamaica, was indicted by a Queens grand jury for the murder of his half-brother during a shooting spree inside a Hollis sports bar in February. Photo courtesy of the NYPD
According to the charges and investigation, during the early morning hours of Saturday, Feb. 21, Torres and Reyes-Nunez were inside the El Catracho Sports Bar at 184-15 Jamaica Ave. in Hollis when a fight broke out just before 1:40 a.m. During the bar brawl, Reyes-Nunez was removed from the premises by a bouncer. As Reyez-Nunez attempted to get back inside, Torrez was still in the pub and allegedly pulled out a gun from his waistband, walked towards the front door and fired as the bar manager was holding the door closed from the inside. The manager suffered a graze wound on the side of his face from a bullet.
Reyes-Nunez was able to re-enter the bar and as he walked inside, Torres fired the weapon again, striking his half-brother twice. Torres then pointed the firearm at a man outside the bar and said, “Do you want me to kill you, too?”
Police from the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica responded to a 911 call of an assault in progress and found Reyes-Nunez with gunshot wounds to his stomach and left shoulder. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead.
After the shooting, police recovered live ammunition rounds near the bar’s doorway and near a pool table, and a spent shell casing outside the bar.
Torres surrendered to officers from the 113th Precinct on March 26.
“As alleged, this defendant turned a crowded Hollis sports bar into a shooting gallery in February,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “Paublo Torres murdered his half-brother and wounded a bar manager during a senseless rampage and miraculously no one else was seriously hurt or injured. A grand jury has now returned serious charges against the defendant.”
Torres was additionally charged with menacing and reckless endangerment. Queens Supreme Court Ushir Pandit-Durant remanded him into custody without bail and ordered him to return to court on June 26. If convicted, Torres faces in excess of 25 years to life in prison.