Riverhead Police have arrested an 18-year old Riverhead man on charges of second-degree attempted murder and assault after a shooting on Thursday night led them to the same suspect in the unrelated last week. He was arraigned Friday morning and remanded to Suffolk County Jail and is being held on $500,000 bail.
Police said Juan F. Soyos-Pixtun shot a 20-year old Riverhead man with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun Thursday night around 10:21 p.m. near Marcy Avenue and Pulaski Street. Police arrived to find the victim on the ground suffering from a gunshot wound to his upper leg, according to Lt. Robert Peeker. Witnesses at the scene told police that Soyos-Pixtun was the shooter, according to a police statement. The man's wounds were described as "non-life-threatening," police said.
Peeker added that an investigation revealed Soyos-Pixtun as the shooter in what they said was an unrelated incident last Friday night, when police said downtown outside the on West Main Street at about 10 p.m.
On Friday, Soyos-Pixtun, of Phillips Avenue in Riverhead, was arraigned for both incidents at Riverhead Town Justice Court. He was charged with second degree-attempted murder, second-degree criminal possession of a firearm and first-degree criminal use of a firearm in relation to the incident on Thursday. Soyos-Pixtun was also charged with second-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a firearm for the Nov. 4 shooting.
Peeker said the assault charges were upgraded to attempted murder in Thursday's Polish Town shootings because of evidence that Soyos-Pixtun threatened to kill the man.
"During the statement taking process it was clear that … this guy wanted to kill the guy last night," Peeker said. The incidents are not thought to be gang-related, Peeker said.
He added that he was unsure if the victims knew the suspect, and didn't know what caused the shootings.
Surveillance footage from the night of the first shooting allegedly show Soyos-Pixtun in an altercation with the victim inside the moments before the shooting, though no audio exists on the tape, said Riverhead Police Detective Robert Boden.
"Right after the verbal altercation, [the suspect] walks out and the victim walks out right behind him," Boden said, adding that the shooting occurred soon after the two stepped outside. The victim told police he had seen the suspect around before, but said he didn't know him well, Boden said.
Police were they were unsure of Soyos-Pixtun's citizenship status.
