Thomas Massenburg, 20, of Jamaica himself was wounded during a shootout over a woman, authorities said.
He remains held without bail in the Nassau County Correctional Center in Hempstead, charged with the murder of a 21-year-old Hempstead man and attempted murder of a man from Uniondale, 20.
Two groups got into it during the Independence Day gathering inside a home, one law enforcement official said, “and then the guns came out.”
Massenberg was recently arrested by the NYPD in Brooklyn on a possession of stolen property charge. Soon after, new evidence emerged linking him to the shooting.
Massenberg’s criminal history includes an arrest in Lyndhurst five months ago.
Officers responding to a Jan. 12 call of vehicles without license plates cruising the parking deck of a local apartment complex stopped a Honda Accord driven by Massenburg for having an expired temporary plate, Detective Lt. Vincent Auteri said at the time.
Smelling a strong odor of raw marijuana, Lt. Paul Haggerty looked inside and spotted a small box on the passenger-side floor that contained a .380-caliber handgun, Auteri told Daily Voice.
Massenburg remained held in the Bergen County Jail for a week before a Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack released him, with conditions, pending court action on a charge of unlawful possession of a handgun without a permit.
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