A “stupid” argument on Facebook led a Queens man to shoot and nearly kill a high school basketball star, ending his hoop dreams in the process, prosecutors said Thursday.
McHarland Cotiere, 23, fired three bullets into Joshua Arrington, who was a 6-foot-8 senior at Springfield Gardens HS when the attack happened on Dec. 27, 2011, prosecutors said.
Arrington’s right leg had to be amputated, ending his hoop dreams, authorities sad.
The victim, now 21, was on Facebook that morning when he spotted a female friend’s posting, complaining about men being unfaithful lovers.
Cotiere, another Facebook pal of the woman’s, then chimed in, saying she’d never meet a good man with that attitude, prosecutors said.
Arrington jumped to the woman’s online defense, disputing Cotiere’s words.
They got into a Facebook messaging argument before Arrington challenged Cotiere to meet him on nearby 185th Street in Hollis for a fistfight, prosecutors said.
Cotiere rolled up in a BMW and shot Arrington twice in the stomach and once in the arm, said Assistant District Attorney Courtney Finnerty.
Cotiere even announced his arrival outside Arrington’s home in a Facebook message, according to prosecutors.
“Come outside p—sy I’m up da bloc,” Cotiere allegedly wrote, under his Facebook handle “Risky Bizness.” “Stop bein a bitch n come out.”
Arrington survived the attempted murder, but lost so much blood that doctors had to amputate his right leg.
“Granted, it’s a stupid and egregious event to happen over a Facebook comment,” Finnerty told a Queens jury in closing arguments. “But for him it’s about pride and saving face [for the defendant].”
In the time between between the online argument and shooting, Arrington looked through Cotiere’s Facebook pictures and figured out that they attended IS 238 together.
By the time Cotiere showed up, Arrington allegedly wanted to bury the hatchet.
“Hey, I know you man,” Arrington said in a friendly manner as he approached Cotiere, according to Finnerty.
But Cotiere wasn’t in a mood to be friends, and shouted back, “You don’t know me p–sy!” Finnerty claimed.
After the shooting, Cotiere allegedly fled to Georgia.
“When people do something wrong their first instinct is to run because they don’t want to get caught,” Finnerty said.
When cops finally arrested Cotiere, “he was hiding out with take out menus and food containers all over a Metro Extended Stay hotel in Marietta, Ga.,” the DA said.
Finnerty showed jurors a picture of Arrington in his school basketball uniform, and said he was fielding college scholarship offers before the shooting.
Defense lawyer Joseph Kasper told jurors the DA can’t put the smoking gun – left at the scene – in his client’s hand.
Cotiere’s fingerprints were not on the gun.
“You didn’t hear of fingerprints on the the weapon or DNA to link my client,” Kasper said.