#Stokes #Jones #LawandOrder #NYC

An actor who starred in the TV series Law & Order and Power has been charged with murder after allegedly shooting a man 10 times in a daylight execution in New York City following an argument over a woman.

Isaiah Stokes, 41, was arrested and charged Friday over the February 7 slaying of Tyrone Jones, 37, in Forest Hills, Queens.

Police said Jones was shot multiple times in the face and head while he sat in a white rented Jeep near the corner of Linden Blvd and 200th St in St. Albans.

He was pronounced dead at the scene, while law enforcement sources said footage of his execution quickly started circulating on social media.

His death comes amid a surge in gun violence in the Big Apple in recent months, with shootings up 29 percent so far in 2021 and fears mounting that the city is headed back to the dark days of the '70s and '80s when it earned the nickname 'Fear City'.

A police source told New York Daily News that Stokes and Jones had gotten into a fight four months before the shooting at Jones' birthday party in a nightclub in Long Island City in October.

The fight broke out when Stokes allegedly hit on Jones' girlfriend, the source said.

Four months later, police said Jones was waiting to meet a woman in the rented Jeep around a mile from his home when he was ambushed by a gunman.

Jones was shot almost a dozen times and police recovered 10 shell casings from a 9mm weapon at the scene.

Prosecutors said surveillance footage shows Stokes walk past the driver's side window of the Jeep before doubling back, gunning down his victim and fleeing the scene.

The suspect was then captured on separate footage getting into a rented Audi, they said.

The net closed in on Stokes when police then tracked that vehicle to a parking spot near his home, they said.

Stokes was taken into custody Friday morning at his apartment in Forest Hills before being arraigned later that day on three charges of second degree murder and weapons possession.

He is scheduled to next appear in court Monday.

If convicted of murder, he faces up to life in prison.

Police said Stokes has several prior arrests for drugs and has ties to gangs.

Stokes, from Queens, has starred in several TV shows, according to his IMDB page.

He played Mozzy in the TV series Power in 2019 and had parts in Boardwalk Empire in 2011 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2009.

He also records music under the name I$AIAH, according to IMBD.

The shooting comes amid an escalating crime wave in New York City, with gun violence surging and attacks on the city's subway systems and in the streets becoming increasingly common.

NYPD data shows that shootings have spiked 28.9 percent in 2021 compared to last year as of July 11, with 803 incidents compared to 623 in 2020.

Shooting victims are also up a staggering 22.2 percent year over year, with 931 people falling victim to gun crime compared to 623 by this time last year.

The number of murders has also risen from 215 to 225 in the same timeframe - a 4.7 percent rise.

has surged 7.3 percent and other sex crimes 25.9 percent.

The biggest leap in crime rates is for hate crimes, which has surged by 118.2 percent in the last year.

This data comes amid numerous random attacks on Asian Americans in the city, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With violent incidents surging, fears are mounting that the city is headed back to the dark days of the 70s and 80s when crime was rife.

Back then, NYC earned the nickname as 'Fear City' due to its prevalence of crime an disorder.

In the 1970s, the city faced $10 billion in debt and funds were cut to the police and other services.

The dark days continued into the 1980s when the crack epidemic ravaged the city.

All types of crime were up and, at its peak, someone was murdered every 63 hours in the worst-hit parts including East New York and Cypress Hill.

Eric Adams, the ex-cop who is the Democratic candidate for New York City mayor, warned on Wednesday that 'no one is going to come back' if violence, and in particular gun violence in the Big Apple continues.

The Brooklyn borough president appeared at an event with Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday as the two political leaders presented a united front in addressing the worrying rising crime.

'No one is going to come back to our multibillion-dollar tourism industry if 3-year-olds are being shot in Times Square,' Adams said.

Adams, 60, won the Democratic primary for this year's mayoral race and will become the mayor of New York if he defeats Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election.

He ripped New York judges and bail reform laws for not doing their part to combat the rising crime rates.

He also said judges are not using tools they do have at their disposal like Kendra's Law which lets courts order mental health treatment in some cases.