The getaway driver who was an accomplice in a deadly shooting at Anchor Bar in 2016 has been found guilty of second-degree murder.
Gregory Ramos, 27, of Niagara Falls was prosecuted as an accomplice to Jorge Suarez, who shot and killed restaurant employee Freddie Dizon, 32, on May 20, 2016.
District Attorney John Flynn says the pair targeted Dizon after a confrontation that escalated on social media spilled out on to the streets. Flynn says says Ramos was a willing accomplice.
"We believe that they targeted the victim, that Ramos and Suarez were in on it together, and that Ramos drove him to the crime scene and then was the getaway driver driving him away. That is the classic definition of aiding and abetting," Flynn said.
Flynn says the three men knew each other and there was a confrontation over a woman on social media.
"We are seeing more and more altercations going on on social media which then spill out onto the streets where people take retribution because of what happened on social media. That is becoming a reoccuring theme in the criminal justice world these days," Flynn added.
Flynn praised his office's assistant district attorneys, who he says brought in 35 witnesses and 150 pieces of evidence to "put this puzzle together."
Ramos, who was also convicted on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon, will learn his fate July 17. Flynn says his office is seeking the same 25-years-to-life sentence that Suarez received last December.
