Coney Island game booth employee gets 13 years for shooting co-worker in beef over customers

A Coney Island game booth employee had a losing day in Brooklyn court Wednesday when a judge sentenced him to 13 years for shooting a co-worker he thought was stealing his customers.

Joseph Colon, 38, who worked at Jumbo Prizes in Luna Park, shot his fellow booth worker Alfredo Perez in the chest on Sept. 10, 2021 as several boardwalk-goers, including children, were enjoying the late summer night, a Brooklyn jury found.

He was convicted at trial of attempted murder and other charges in Brooklyn Supreme Court on May 31. Justice Susan Quirk handed down the 13-year sentence.

Colon and his victim were both working as recruiters for the game booth, and they got a few bucks for each customer they brought in, according to law enforcement sources. About a week before the shooting, he accused the victim of stealing one of his customers while he was on break, the sources said.

That argument was part of a longstanding beef over who got to recruit the game stand’s customers. On the night of the shooting, Colon was already there when Perez showed up for work.

He took what prosecutors described as a “tactical position behind the booth,” pulled out an unlicensed gun, and shot Perez once in the chest.

Colon got out of the booth, briefly pursuing the victim before ducking down Bowery St., then was caught on video taking off his camouflage hoodie and walking into Nathan’s Famous, where he tossed the garment in the trash.

Police recovered the hoodie, which had his DNA on it.

Colon then headed to his Coney Island home, and “he waved to people, and shook the hands of acquaintances, and hugged and kissed neighbors along the way,” Assistant D.A. Michael Boykin wrote in his sentencing letter to Quirk.

He then fled to a relative’s home in Temple, Penn., staying there until his capture by the NYPD’s Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Perez almost died, but was discovered by a random pedestrian and saved by an ambulance crew who happened to be in the area handling another patient, Boykin wrote.

“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,” Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said Wednesday.

Colon’s lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.