Queens Man Convicted in Fatal Shooting and Stabbing of Neighbor

A 54-year-old Queens man has been convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting a neighbor who allegedly ran a prostitution ring out of a building in which they both lived, the Queens district attorney said.

Reginald Monroe, who lives on 150th Street in Jamaica, was convicted on Friday of murder and criminal possession of a weapon following a three-week trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory L. Lasak, Queens DA Richard Brown said.

Monroe, who also goes by the name Abdullah Shahid Haqq, was found guilty of shooting his neighbor twice and stabbing him 57 times, the DA said.

The defendant, who will return to court on Nov. 2, could face up to 25 years to life in prison.

“If this defendant disapproved of the victim allegedly running a prostitution ring out of the apartment building where they both lived as squatters on separate floors,” Brown said. “Instead, a jury has found he violently attacked his neighbor and killed him. He now faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.”

On June 21, 2009, Monroe was living as a squatter in a second-floor apartment in an abandoned building along 150th Street. He confronted the victim, John Williams, 44, in the third-floor apartment where he was squatting and shot him twice in the torso, the DA said.

Williams fled the apartment, but the defendant caught up with him, stabbing him 57 times in the head, torso and neck, Brown said. Monroe dragged the victim down the stairs and into the basement, where police found him the next day hanging from a twisted T-shirt caught on the staircase, according to trial testimony.

The DA said that Monroe had strong religious beliefs and was offended when the victim allegedly invited him to help run a prostitution ring. The defendant was angered at the victim’s alleged bad treatment of women, Brown said.