An off-duty New York prison worker facing murder and manslaughter charges for shooting in a car where police found a water bead gun said he feared for his life when he felt a “stinging in his back.”
Authorities said Dion Middleton, 45, shot Raymond Chaluisant, 18, in the face as he sat in the passenger side of an Acura on July 21. Police recovered an Orbeez gel-blaster gun in the vehicle. The guns have become popular on social media with TikTok posts using #OrbeezChallenge.
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A New York correction officers’ union attorney said Middleton saw a passenger in the car make a hand gesture after he was stung with something that “felt like glass.” Orbeez are water-filled beads.
“I’m trying to provide context,” attorney Joey Jackson said during Middleton’s initial court appearance. “That context would suggest to the court that at the time my client discharged a single round, he was doing so under the belief that he was in immediate fear of death of his life.”
Middleton has been charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. Chaluisant reportedly died at a nearby hospital, and authorities arrested Middleton later in the day after reviewing surveillance footage. He was at the Correction Department’s firing range, where he works, The New York Times reported.
Prosecutors argued that Middleton told investigators that he never saw anyone holding a weapon or heard shots fired.
“He also stated that he was not injured and he was not hurt and he was not shot,” Justin Siebel of the state attorney general’s office said. “The defendant then continued walking on his regular course and did not at any point stop and call the police or inform anybody.”
Family members were angry to learn that the officer returned to work soon after the incident. “He did not deserve this, especially from a whole correction officer that was off duty,” said the victim’s half-sister Jiraida Esquilin. “And then for him to go to work, as if nothing happened. It’s mind-blowing … He basically had no remorse because you’re going into work the next day knowing you shot an 18-year-old little boy.”
Benny Boscio, president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, said a New York Police Department traffic officer was also hit with pellets in the same area.
“Toy guns no longer resemble toys, as the images of this water pistol demonstrate, and they remain an ongoing threat to public safety,” Boscio said. “We will provide Officer Middleton with the best possible representation to ensure that his legal rights are protected.”
