Two Edgemere men have pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter for a 2021 shooting that killed 10-year-old Justin Wallace during a dispute between neighbors over a shared driveway. Ashram Lochan, 32, and Jovan Young, 34, are each expected to spend decades behind bars once they are formally sentenced later this month, closing out a case that began with a dispute over a shared driveway and ended with a child shot dead inside Forrester’s home near its front door.
According to the Queens County District Attorney, the violence traces back to June 5, 2021, when Lochan got into a dispute with his next-door neighbor, Kyle Forrester, on Beach 45th Street. That evening, at approximately 9:30 p.m., Young — acting at Lochan’s direction — fired a pistol multiple times into Forrester’s home and toward Forrester as he entered his front door, prosecutors said.
Justin Wallace, who was inside Forrester’s home near its door, was struck once in the chest and later died from the wound at a local hospital, per the district attorney’s account. Forrester was struck multiple times in the back and once each in the hand and neck; he was taken to a hospital and survived. The Queens County District Attorney’s office has noted that Wallace would have turned 11 just three days after he was killed.
Guilty Pleas Replace Murder Charges
Lochan pleaded guilty before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant, who indicated she will receive 19 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 16. Young pleaded guilty on October 6 before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky, who indicated a 24-year sentence, also followed by five years of post-release supervision, with sentencing set for October 23 — bringing the two men’s combined anticipated prison time to 43 years.
The manslaughter pleas resolve indictments that had originally charged both men with second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, second-degree assault, second-degree criminal weapon possession, and tampering with physical evidence, the district attorney’s office said. As Shore News Network reported in its own coverage of the case, as reported by Shore News Network, the pleas bring the prosecution closer to its conclusion.
DA's Office Points to Grief and Closure
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the shooting devastated Justin’s family and the surrounding community, and that Young fired multiple rounds into the home at Lochan’s behest over what began as a dispute about a shared driveway. Katz said she hopes the guilty pleas will provide some measure of closure for Wallace’s family as the case nears its conclusion.
Deputy Bureau Chief Jonathan Selkowe is prosecuting the case, with assistance from John Kosinski, chief of the Queens District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Chief Assistant District Attorney Shawn Clark, according to the district attorney’s office. Lochan and Young are scheduled to return to court later this month for their respective sentencings.
A Pattern Seen Beyond Queens
Disputes over shared property lines have turned deadly elsewhere in recent years. A New York man was convicted of second-degree murder, as reported by PBS NewsHour, after fatally shooting a young woman whose vehicle had mistakenly pulled into his rural driveway. And in Baltimore, a 12-year-old girl was killed earlier this month when she was caught in crossfire as two men argued over a parking spot and exchanged gunfire, according to The New York Times. Those cases remain separate from the Queens prosecution, but they underscore how quickly arguments over parking and property can turn fatal.
