Jury finds Rockaway man not guilty of attempted murder of police officers

Joel Kelly, 61, was found not guilty for the attempted murder of two police officers during a 2024 shooting. Eagle photo by Noah Powelson

By Noah Powelson

Queens prosecutors and police officers claimed a Rockaway man attempted murder a pair of cops during a late-night chase last July – but a jury had their doubts.

Joel Kelly, a Rockaway man who was facing 40 years in prison after being accused of attempting to shoot two police officers, was found not guilty of attempted murder by a Queens jury on Thursday afternoon. While he was acquitted of the top charge, the 61-year-old man was found guilty of illegal possession of a weapon and for reckless endangerment, crimes he admitted to.

The core question of the case was not whether Kelly had fired the gun, but whether he intended to kill two police officers in the process.

Over the course of a two-week trial at the Queens Criminal Courthouse that primarily centered around footage of the shooting taken from surveillance and police body worn cameras, a twelve-person jury heard competing narratives of the night Kelly fired a gun several times in and outside of a NYCHA housing complex before being chased by responding police officers.

Prosecutors with the Queens district attorney’s office made the case that Kelly pointed and shot at the pursuing police officers during the pursuit, which was captured on multiple cameras, intending to kill.

Kelly’s attorney acknowledged his client had a gun, but categorically denied the Rockaway man attempted to take the lives of the officers. Accusing the NYPD of crafting a false narrative in coordinating the DA’s office after the fact, the defense argued Kelly’s gun went off by accident as his client drunkenly fell and stumbled to get back up during the chase.

While there was little doubt Kelly had and fired a gun, the jury ultimately didn’t agree with the prosecution’s argument that he intended to kill.

The incident unfolded when police responded to a late night 911 call from Kelly’s sister on July 27, 2024 who said her brother had fired a gun several times in the hall outside her apartment after they had an argument. Officers were dispatched to the woman’s home at the NYCHA Beach 41st Street Houses in the Rockaways to investigate.

Two police officers, Sgt. Kathleen Kelly and Officer Abraheem Chaudhry, saw Kelly while patrolling the area, and attempted to stop him. Kelly turned and started running toward the courtyard of a housing complex, and the two officers pursued. The chase was captured on the officers’ body-worn cameras, and showed Kelly tripping multiple times before a loud audible bang of a gun made the officers slow their pursuit.

No one was shot during the incident and Kelly was arrested shortly after by other responding officers.

While multiple videos from multiple sources were played for the jury, only one captured the exact moment Kelly’s gun went off. Recorded from a grainy, black and white NYCHA surveillance camera, Kelly was seen fleeing down a pathway, tripping several times. Just as he was about to leave the frame of the video, a single white dot of a muzzle flash was visible on camera.

This single white pixel proved to be the most important piece of evidence presented during trial. While the muzzle flash is visible in the video, the position of Kelly’s body, hands and arms are completely shrouded in darkness. Replayed and debated over and over again, the prosecution and defense spent much of the trial arguing if this single frame of video proved that Kelly was pointing the gun at the officers.

Kelly’s attorney, Scottie Celestin, argued that not only did the poor quality video not show Kelly shot at the cops, but the words of responding officers at the time proved he didn’t.

Chaudry and Sgt. Kelly were captured on their body-worn cameras explaining the shooting to other police officers at the time. Neither of them told their superiors that Kelly shot at them, Celestin said at trial. They only started claiming they were shot at, Celestin argued, in the following days.

During cross examination, Chaudry said he believed he was shot at but didn’t want to say so definitively at the time. He also said it wasn’t until he saw the videos that he believed Kelly attempted to kill him.

With NYPD officers watching from the gallery during his closing arguments, including Sgt. Kelly and Chaudry, Celestin accused all investigators in this case, from the officers, to the detectives to the district attorneys, of lying and fabricating an attempted murder to make an example out of Kelly.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Salmon objected frequently throughout Celestin’s accusations, objections that presiding Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis sustained more often than not.

Margulis instructed the jury to disregard much of Celestin’s assertions around police corruption, but those objections did not stop corruption accusations throughout closing arguments.

"[District attorneys] have a greater duty, they are supposed to be independent, they are supposed to safeguard," Celestin told the jury during his closing arguments. Instead, Celestin argued, the police officers and the district attorney prosecuting the case were “corrupt, compromised, malicious, and incompetent.”

Salmon denied all of the defense’s assertions during closing arguments, telling the jury to focus on the facts and evidence of the case.

"That defies logic, that defies common sense, that defies the evidence you have seen in this trial," Salmon told the jury during his closing arguments about the defense’s narrative.

Salmon argued that, looking at the angle of the muzzle flash, the only direction a bullet could go would be behind Kelly and toward the pursuing police officers.

Given that Kelly had already fired the gun multiple times earlier that night, Salmon argued that the defendant was willing and intended to use that firearm on another person. He reminded the jury that while no one was injured, Kelly still admitted to firing a gun in a public housing area and recklessly endangered everyone living there.

Ultimately, the jury disagreed.

A spokesperson for the Queens district attorney’s office told the Eagle they “respect the verdict.”

Kelly’s sentencing for his illegal weapons possession and reckless endangerment charges is currently set for May 28, 2025. He faces a sentence of three-and-a-half years to 15 years in prison.