A 22-year-old Mount Vernon man was sentenced Thursday to 3 1/2 years in state prison after firing shots in retaliation for an earlier attack, striking an innocent 70-year-old bystander seated in a pickup truck. Westchester County Judge George Fufidio handed down the sentence to Rodney Solomon following the September 17, 2024 shooting outside 103 West Third Street.
A rival group arrived and opened fire before Solomon retreated inside the apartment complex, retrieved a firearm and fired toward the parking lot.
A shot struck a 70-year-old man who was sitting in a pickup truck in the lot, hitting him in the left side. The man was treated at Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital for the gunshot wound. Charging documents released by the Westchester County District Attorney's Office describe the gunshot wound as striking the victim's abdomen, and place the start of the confrontation at around 9:20 p.m., when the rival group arrived and opened fire before Solomon retreated inside the building to retrieve his weapon.
Charges in the Case
Solomon was initially charged with attempted murder.
In September 2025, a Westchester County grand jury indicted Solomon on six felony counts, including Class B attempted second-degree murder, Class C attempted first-degree assault, two counts of Class C second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, Class D second-degree assault, and Class D first-degree reckless endangerment, according to the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.
Reporting from News 12 Westchester noted that prosecutors said the rival group that initially confronted Solomon outside the apartment building had fired a shotgun in his direction before he fled inside to grab his own handgun.
Minimum Sentence Under State Law
Attempted first-degree assault is a Class C violent felony that carries a statutory range of 3 1/2 to 15 years for first-time violent felony offenders, according to the law firm Proto, Sachs & Brown, LLP. In September 2025, Solomon was being held at the Westchester County Jail, with bail set at $250,000 cash, $500,000 bond, or $500,000 partially secured bond.
The case lands amid a broader state and county push against gun violence. Mount Vernon participates in New York's Gun Involved Violence Elimination initiative, which funds coordinated local police, probation, and prosecutorial efforts against gun crime, per the Westchester County District Attorney's Office's gun safety page. District Attorney Susan Cacace's annual statistics, reported by Talk of the Sound, show Mount Vernon police seized 56 illegal firearms in 2025, second only to Yonkers countywide, out of 220 illegal guns seized and 244 gun-related arrests across Westchester.
Statewide Gun Violence Trends
State criminal justice figures released this week showed Mount Vernon among 13 participating police departments statewide reporting zero firearm-related deaths in the first eight months of 2026, as reported by the Yonkers Times, with GIVE-funded jurisdictions statewide seeing a 19% drop in injury shootings over the same period.
