Brooklyn shooter convicted in home invasion murder of Queens father

A Sunset Park man who shot a South Ozone Park father as he helped his five-year-old daughter get dressed for school in 2016 was convicted last week, the Queens District Attorney’s Office announced.

Freddie Salgado, 41, and an unidentified suspect were attempting a home invasion when they entered Frankie Nieves’ Queens home on January 11, 2016 and fatally shot him in the chest. Salgado faces up to 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 17.

“The victim in this case was helping his five-year-old daughter dress for school when the defendant and another individual barged in, fought with the victim’s brother and then shot the 50-year-old father once in the chest,” said Chief Assistant District Attorney John Ryan in a statement.

“This kind of lawless gun violence is reprehensible. One man was killed and the child could have easily become a victim of this ruthless act of depravity. A jury has spoken and the defendant now faces a lengthy term of incarceration for his actions.”

Salgado, of 54th Street in Sunset Park, and the other man, fought with Nieves’ brother Edgar on the ground floor. The two men were armed with a handgun and a stun gun, according to prosecutors.

As Edgar managed to escape the house via the front door, he heard gunfire, eventually learning that Frankie had been shot once in the chest at close range. Frankie was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died.

Investigators managed to capture Salgado because DNA extracted from a red hat left at the scene was a match to Salgado’s DNA profile, which was on file in the New York State DNA Databank.

Salgado initially fled New York City and was apprehended in Miami a week after the murder in the same BMW used as a getaway car in the crime.

Detectives from the NYPD’s 106 Precinct located the Salgado, re-apprehended him and extradited him to Queens to face murder charges. Salgado’s alleged accomplice has not yet been apprehended.

NYPD Crime Scene Unit investigators later discovered a spot of blood on the car that was a match for the victim.

This story originally appeared on QueensEagle.com.