Man Indicted For Fatally Shooting Girlfriend In Harlem's King Towers: DA

HARLEM, NY — A man has been indicted on murder charges for fatally shooting his girlfriend during an argument in her Harlem apartment, according to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Malachi Colon, 21, has been charged with second-degree murder and criminal weapons charges in connection with the killing of 24-year-old Natalie Vasquez, prosecutors said.

Vasquez, a mother of two, was found inside the King Towers housing project suffering a gunshot wound to the head on Dec. 9, police told Patch. First responders discovered her body inside a building on 5th Avenue near West 114th Street around 1:50 a.m., police said.

Colon and Vasquez were dating at the time of the murder, prosecutors said. The two had been arguing the night of the shooting and when the argument escalated Colon pulled out a gun and shot Vasquez once in the forehead at point-blank range, prosecutors said. After the shooting, Colon changed his clothes, left Vasquez' apartment and started to search for interstate bus tickets before he was caught by police, prosecutors said.

“This defendant is charged with fatally shooting his girlfriend in a senseless, gruesome act of domestic violence,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement. “In the heat of the moment, the presence of a gun in the home — and in the hands of a domestic abuser — can rapidly turn a household dispute into a fatal tragedy.

Photo by Google Maps street view