HUNTINGTON STATION
Arrest In Church St. Shooting
By Danny Schrafel/dschrafel@longislandernews.com

Multiple aliases and addresses weren’t enough to stop police from arresting a man accused of shooting a reputed gang member a half-dozen times outside a Huntington Station home.
Suffolk police arrested 34-year-old Tarodney Sanders on Aug. 25 and charged him with second-degree attempted murder after he allegedly shot Ariel Perez, 21, six times outside 11A Church Street at about 2 a.m. on Aug. 4. Second squad detectives made the arrest on Parkway Boulevard in Wyandanch shortly after 6 a.m. with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Service’s Regional Fugitive Task Force.

A young woman sitting on the stoop of the Church Street address was also injured in the gunfire.

Sanders was remanded on $500,000 bail and $1 million bond. If convicted of second-degree murder, Sanders faces up to 25 years in prison.

The defendant’s attorney, Islip-based Roger Rothman, did not return calls for comment.
Perez was targeted, police said, and although the victim is a reputed member of the Crips gang, Second Squad Det./Lt. Tom O’Heir said the attack was “not gang-related.”

“[Sanders] is not a known gang member,” the lieutenant said.

O’Heir said Sanders was hard to find because of his multiple addresses in Huntington, Wyandanch and other parts of the country.

“We’d been looking for him for quite some time,” O’Heir added.

Another complicating factor, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, was Sanders’ aliases. A spokesman said Tarodney Sanders also went by Tyrone King, Rodney Sanders and T-Bone.

The incident took place just blocks away from Huntington School District’s Jack Abrams School. The school board decided earlier this summer not to hold classes there this fall because of pervasive violence and crime in the surrounding community.