Long Island Man Indicted For Port Jefferson Double Shooting

RIVERHEAD, NY — A Long Island man is facing upgraded charges for allegedly shooting two men in Port Jefferson Village back in June, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini said Wednesday.

Prosecutors said that at about 2 a.m. on June 19, Ethan Ladd, a 20-year-old who has been identified by law enforcement as a member of the Just Chasing Money, or “JCM” gang, went into Tommy’s Place on Main Street, met a 23-year-old man and a 20-year-old man, and “allegedly became engaged in an argument with one of the men.”

Ladd, the two men, and several other people then moved outside to a nearby parking lot where the “altercation ensued” with him coming to blows “with one of the men,” prosecutors said.

Ladd then allegedly took a .380-caliber handgun from his car and shot one of the men in the abdomen, prosecutors said, adding that Ladd then “shot the other man twice in the leg and once in the arm at close range” before leaving in his car.

Both men were transported to a local hospital with “serious physical injuries,” according to prosecutors.

Sini called the shooting “a senseless act of gun violence committed by a dangerous individual.”

“Both victims have been left with severe lasting impacts as a result of the shooting,” he said. “My office will continue to hold gang members and perpetrators of gun violence accountable.”

Ladd, who was arrested on June 20, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and first-degree assault, as well as criminal use of a firearm and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, all felonies.

If convicted on the top counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 50 years in prison.

The court transferred his $25,000 bail from his arraignment on the lesser charges in First District Court, and “justifiably so,” his attorney, Steven Politi of Central Islip, said, adding that he had kept the conditions of his bail and returned to court.

Ladd, who has never been arrested before, lives at home, works with his father, and has plans to go to college and take courses in Liberal Arts during the fall, Politi said.

"He’s a very respectful young man," he added.

Politi said Ladd does not have an account of the night in question that he would be willing to share at the moment. He also took issue with the DA's reference to the men who were shot as "victims," as well as the account of the severity of the injuries they sustained.

Politi said that when referring to someone as a victim in the criminal justice posture, "you're stating that a crime has been committed, whether it has been committed is what the criminal justice system gets to determine, not the media, not the DA's office, not the people in society."

"Once they decide that a crime has been committed, then they can go ahead and call individuals victims," he added.

Ladd is due back in court on Aug. 26