Police ID Roosevelt Field Mall Shooting Suspect

GARDEN CITY, NY - A 21-year-old from Queens has been identified as the man who shot a Roosevelt Field Mall employee during an attempted robbery at a luxury watch store on Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Oliver Lee, of Little Neck, is charged with first degree robbery, first degree assault, first degree criminal use of a firearm and two counts of second degree assault.

According to police, Lee entered the Rolex section of the Tourneau store inside the mall on Old Country Road in Garden City shortly before 1 p.m. and walked to the rear of the store to look at watches.

Lee then asked to see an $18,000 watch and was taken to a secure viewing area in the store, according to an NBC 4 report.

Lee then brandished a handgun and demanded the watch from the clerk, police said.

As they reached the threshold of the store entrance, a single round was discharged from Lee’s weapon, striking a mall employee standing a short distance away in the back of his shoulder, police said.

The struggle continued to an adjacent store, where multiple security guards were able to detain Lee until police arrived, police said.

The 67-year-old mall employee who was shot was transported to an area hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

Lee allegedly posted a photo of the unlicensed gun on Facebook and he was found to be in possession of the painkiller oxycodone, Newsday reported.

Lee will be arraigned on Wednesday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Authorities are crediting retired NYPD Det. Sgt. Kenneth Krug, who was working as a security guard at the mall, with helping to disarm Lee along with two other security guards–Marcelo Espinoza and Leroy Bobbitt.

“God knows what could have occurred had he made his way out of the store into the mall,” Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano said of Lee, according to NBC 4. ”He [Krug] really did a heroic act that day by making sure that perpetrator was detained and the gun was taken away.”