An 18-year-old man was charged in connection with the fatal shooting last week of a 69-year-old woman in East Harlem, the authorities announced on Thursday.
The woman, Robin Wright, was killed on the street near her apartment building when the man, Faisil McCants, opened fire on a drug dealer he was trying to rob, the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.
Mr. McCants was charged with armed robbery and the use of a machine gun, the statement said. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the second, more serious charge.
“Robin Wright was an innocent bystander who lost her life to gun violence — and justice was served in her memory,” Jessica S. Tisch, the police commissioner, said in a statement on Thursday. “Removing illegal firearms from our streets remains at the forefront, and we will continue to ensure that those who carry them are held accountable.”
In the moments before the shooting on Aug. 27, at around 12:30 p.m., Mr. McCants and two unnamed partners were attempting to rob a drug dealer near East 109th Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan, according to the attorney’s office.
Mr. McCants and one of his partners grabbed backpacks from the dealer containing marijuana and fled north, turning on East 110th Street, the office said.
As he was running, Mr. McCants pulled a machine gun and fired 15 shots toward the drug dealer on the sidewalk, according to the attorney’s office. Ms. Wright, who was standing with a walker on the corner of East 110th Street, was struck in the face.
Ms. Wright was transported to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Mr. McCants is the only person connected to the robbery and shooting currently in law enforcement custody, officials said.
The Police Department on Tuesday announced record lows for both shooting incidents and shooting victims in the city during the first eight months of the year. The department said there had been 489 shootings and 611 victims during that time, surpassing the previous lows of 502 shootings and 612 victims during the same period in 2018.
“Even with the tremendous steps we’ve taken in making our city safer,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement, “we know that one crime is still one crime too many, and a number of heartbreaking incidents remain at the forefront of people’s minds.”
On Friday, the area where Ms. Wright had been killed had been transformed into a small memorial, with pots of flowers on the pavement and a pink balloon in the shape of a heart swaying gently in the breeze, next to a box of takeout. Ms. Wright had been on her way back from grabbing lunch — Chinese food, some neighbors said — when she was shot.
Nereida Morales, 59, who has lived in East Harlem for 24 years, said she doesn’t feel safe after the shooting.
“A lot of seniors are scared,” Ms. Morales said. “I come out during the day for a little while, sitting right here in front of my building. That’s it.”
Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
Samantha Latson is a Times reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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