CHELSEA — A shooting outside a Chelsea nightclub on Sunday was the result of a long-held grudge and a chance meeting at a book party for an erotic novella, according to the commanding officer of the 13th Precinct.
Three men who shot another man six times outside a book launch party at the 22nd Street nightclub Auxiliary over the weekend was exacting revenge on a man investigators say "ratted out" one of the suspects for a robbery nearly 20 years ago, according to Deputy Inspector Brendan Timoney.
The suspects ran into the victim at a party for an erotic book called “She’s Dickmatized” by Tania Marie at about 1 a.m. on Sunday.
The accused shooter, 38-year-old Ramel Harkless, was with two friends when he recognized the victim, who Timoney said helped put Harkless behind bars for a robbery in 1998. Harkless served seven years in prison for the crime, according to state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision records.
“They had a beef dating back to 1998, when our victim ratted the guy out for a robbery,” Timoney said.
Harkless and his accomplices, Joseph Saunders, 43, and Barry Wiles, 46, left the nightclub and grabbed a handgun from the trunk of a car parked nearby. They found the victim outside 105 W. 22nd St. near the corner of Sixth Avenue and shot him six times, hitting him in the abdomen, groin, torso and leg, according to a criminal complaint.
The victim was rushed to Bellevue Hospital in critical but stable condition, police said.
The shooters fled in a black Mercedes 350, but police who were responding to an unrelated incident nearby heard the gunshots and spotted one of the men running to the car with a gun in his hand and getting into the back seat, according to the complaint.
Officers in an unmarked car turned on their lights and sirens and gave chase, following the Mercedes east on West 22nd to Park Avenue, where the sedan blew a red light, made a right turn, and headed south to 19th Street, police said.
The Mercedes then stopped short, causing a collision with the police vehicle, and the officers arrested the three men inside without incident, according to the NYPD. Officers found a silver and black handgun on the floor of the car underneath the rear passenger seat where Harkless had been sitting, according to a police report.
Prosecutors charged Harkless, Saunders and Wiles with attempted murder, assault, and weapons possession, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
A judge ordered bail set at $200,000 for Harkless, $175,000 for Wiles and $50,000 for Saunders, records show.
The three men are due back in court on Oct. 21, according to court records.
All three men have a criminal past. In addition to the 1998 robbery, Harkless also spent three years in prison from 1995 to 1998 for another robbery, records show.
Saunders’ record includes a 1998 murder, and Wiles previously did time for a shooting, records show.
