THE BRONX — The gunman charged Tuesday with shooting an innocent 5-year-old in the head on the boy's birthday served six years in state prison for taking part in a violent kidnapping, according to court records and reports.
Michael Quiles, 27, was taken into custody Tuesday morning after police got a tip that he was the shooter, according to the NYPD's Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce and police sources. He was later charged with attempted murder.
Quiles was released on parole in The Bronx in October after he was convicted of being part of a group that kidnapped an Albany woman in 2009 and tortured her over speaker phone while her brother, who had stolen a safe from one of the crew members, was forced to listen, according to a report in The Record News and a criminal complaint.
The woman was stabbed in her hand, suffered a broken nose and was cut on her left ear, prosecutors said.
He was convicted of attempted kidnapping in 2010 and was released from prison on Oct. 14, 2016, according to state records.
Quiles was aiming at another man when he fired four shots Monday afternoon, one of which hit the 5-year-old boy in the head as he was being walked to a waiting car by his dad outside 1138 Washington Ave. in Morrisania about 5:15 p.m., NYPD officials said.
The boy, who had been celebrating his birthday, suffered life-threatening injuries and was treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, police said.
Quiles and the other man he was aiming at both fled the scene, police said.
It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the shooting, police said.
Quiles has been arrested 10 times before for charges including the kidnapping, drugs and weapons possession, sources said.
He was expected to be arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court Tuesday night.