Queens teen charged with shooting neighbor's Pomeranian when 'fooling around' with guns

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — An 18-year-old from Queens was charged with shooting his neighbor’s dog when playing around with two firearms on Monday morning, the NYPD said.

Joshua Marte was hit with aggravated cruelty to animals, criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment charges for allegedly firing off two shots around 9 a.m. from his home on Lahn Street into the home directly behind his on Huron Street in Howard Beach.

Cops responded to the Huron Street home, near 155th Street, and found a woman waiting for the officers

She proceeded to show them a bullet hole in the window of her house, and her Pomeranian bleeding and in discomfort, NYPD Chief of Detective Joseph Kenny said during a press briefing Tuesday.

Police also went to the home on Lahn Street, where they discovered Marte’s mother, who said that there were two bullet holes in her home and that her son had run away.

“She panicked, found two firearms and put them in her freezer. We secured the location for a search warrant, where we recovered two guns,” Kenny said.

Arya the Pomeranian was pierced in the leg, near its groin, and the bullet nicked its colon. Despite its injuries, police said Arya is OK.

Marte told police that he did not mean to hurt anyone.

“It’s probably an accidental discharge, fooling around with the guns. But he ended up, like I said, shots fired through a window, almost hits a woman, shoots a dog,” Kenny said.