{"id":59820,"date":"2025-12-03T17:09:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/59820\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T17:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:09:24","slug":"gunman-killed-two-teens-in-brooklyn-over-gang-rivalry-and-getaway-driver-videotaped-it-d-a-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/59820\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunman killed two teens in Brooklyn over gang rivalry, and getaway driver videotaped it: D.A."},"content":{"rendered":"

A drive-by gunman who shot and killed two teen<\/a>s in a Brooklyn park picked them off over a gang rivalry, all while his then-15-year-old driver recorded video of the violent scene with his cell phone, prosecutors said at the alleged killer\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n

Joshua Bonilla, 28, killed Antonio Villa, 18, and Kleimer Piron Mendez, 16, and wounded a third teen as part of a neighborhood gang rivalry that included avenging the murder of one of his pals, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Perry told a Brooklyn Supreme Court jury Monday.<\/p>\n

The teens died in a bloody surge of violence in the early months of the COVID pandemic, and were two of eight victims<\/a> slain over a bloody 24-hour stretch in New York City on July 26, 2020.<\/p>\n

Bonilla and driver Bryant Perez<\/a> circled George Walker Jr. Park on Vermont St. near Crosby Ave. in East New York and double-parked down block for a moment to make sure no other cars would come down the street, Perry said. When the road was clear, Bonilla popped out of the sunroof and fired a hail of 10 bullets, hitting Villa and Piron Mendez in the head, he said. A third teen, 17, was hit in the leg.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoshua Bonilla stood on the center armrest of a stolen Honda CR-V, while 15-year-old Bryant Perez drove that car,\u201d Perry said. \u201cHe was armed with a .357-caliber semiautomatic pistol. \u2026 In that moment, he turned that Honda CR-V into a military vehicle, fully equipped with a turret in the form of that semiautomatic pistol.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonilla is charged with first-degree murder and other offenses.<\/p>\n

Perry told the jury that he expects to present extensive video evidence, including a cell phone video taken by Perez from inside the CR-V \u2014 a video later found on Bonilla\u2019s phone after his arrest.<\/p>\n

Perez pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder on Nov. 5, in exchange for 20 years to life. He remains held without bail, and will be sentenced at a later date.<\/p>\n

As investigators closed in on him, he chatted with some of his friends via text who opined about how cops managed to recognize him from his distinctive tattoos, Perry said.<\/p>\n

Bonilla and Perez were part of a gang called \u201cWar Block,\u201d based on the where they lived, Warwick St., and they were warring with another gang that would hang out at the park, Perry said. At least one of the victims was part of this rival crew, the prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Bonilla\u2019s lawyer, Nahal Batmanghelidj, countered that cops have no murder weapon, no fingerprints and no eyewitnesses to the shooting.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoshua Bonilla is here today because he got into a car at the wrong time,\u201d she told the jury. \u201cThe question you have to answer is whether Joshua Bonilla was that shooter. Joshua Bonilla was not that shooter.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that the killer fired \u201cwith the precision of a professional,\u201d and did everything he could to cover his face, while Bonilla did nothing to hide his identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you listen to the evidence, think also about what is missing, because you will never see the face of that shooter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last about three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drive-by gunman who shot and killed two teens in a Brooklyn park picked them off over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[32152,98,100,99,10916,32154,32151,32153,32150,9,24,63,32155],"class_list":{"0":"post-59820","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-antonio-villa","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","11":"tag-brooklyn-news","12":"tag-brooklyn-supreme-court","13":"tag-bryant-perez","14":"tag-joshua-bonilla","15":"tag-kleimer-piron-mendez","16":"tag-matthew-perry","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-semiautomatic-pistol"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}