Luna Park Worker Sentenced for Attempted Murder

C.G. Hoffman

A former amusement park worker at Coney Island’s Luna Park has been sentenced this week to 13 years in prison for shooting a co-worker in a case of attempted murder. Both worked at the Jumbo Prizes game booth, and in the days prior to the shooting had been involved in a dispute over customers and profits.

Video surveillance captured the defendant, Joseph Colon, 38, waiting for the victim at the booth where they both worked on September 10, 2021, at approximately 8 pm. He then shot the victim with an unlicensed handgun. Surveillance footage then captured him disposing of the hoodie he had been wearing in a garbage can at the nearby Nathan’s Famous. After stopping at his apartment in Coney Island, he fled to Temple, Pennsylvania, where a relative lived. He was extradited by the United States Marshals Service and the NYPD’s Regional Fugitive Task Force.

District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the sentencing, saying “This shooting at Coney Island’s Luna Park was an outrageous act of violence that nearly killed a man and put many more people in harm’s way. Gun crime will not be tolerated in Brooklyn, and today’s sentence ensures that the defendant has been held accountable for his deplorable actions.”