NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Francisco Valencia, 18, of New Rochelle, is expected to be charged with at least one count of Attempted Murder in the shooting of a Yonkers police officer.
Kayla Maher, 26, was shot in the chin on Monday evening at Ridge Drive and Marshall Road in Yonkers on Tuesday evening. A fierce gun-battle erupted after Yonkers police responded to a complaint of a suspicious vehicle.
When Yonkers police responded to a report of a car playing loud music at the corner of Rumsey Road and Park Hill Avenue, Valencia reportedly had a .40-caliber Glock in his hand. As Maher and her partner approached the vehicle, shots were fired.
Two suspects were arrested, Valencia and a second man, age 22.
Valencia was shot during the incident and taken to Westchester Medical Center. The second man was not injured and taken into custody.
Valencia, according to news reports, has an extensive criminal history including weapons charges and drug dealing and 23 prior arrests.
Valencia was arrested on May 31st after police stopped him outside a White Castle on Fordham Road in The Bronx. According to an indictment brought by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Valencia, a drug dealer with 23 prior arrests, was arrested in New York City on May 31 when officers found him there carrying a duffel bag with 500 rounds of ammunitions for .22-caliber pistol a 9-mm pistol and a shotgun, a machete, a set of brass knuckles and marijuana. Valencia had a semi-automatic handgun in his waistband. The arrest came after his father reported his son to police as “armed”, “dangerous”, living in an apartment in the Bronx doing drugs, according to news accounts.
Valencia appeared last Wednesday, September 20th, before Bronx Supreme Court Justice George Villegas where he plead guilty to criminal possession of a weapon and was sentenced to five years probation due to his age. He was 17 years old at the time of his arrest in May, 2017.
“We objected to the plea being offered, because we would never have offered a non-jail deal in this case,” said Bronx DA spokesperson Patrice O’Shaughnessy.
Valencia was due in New Rochelle City Court on Monday on charged related to threatening his father with a gun. A bench warrant for this arrest issued for Valencia.
Yonkers Police Officer Kayla Maher was released from Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx on Tuesday. She had a bandage on her chin and scrapes and bruises up and down her right arm.
UPDATE 9/27: New Rochelle Police along with federal agents visited 43 Crestview in New Rochelle, NY to search the former home of Francisco “Frank” Valencia.
UPDATE 9/28: Jerry Reyes, 21, of New Rochelle was charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the second-degree. He is alleged to have been the passenger during an incident where Yonkers Police Officer Kayla Maher was shot in the face. He reportedly had a loaded .40 Glock pistol under his seat. Reyes graduated from Salesian High School in 2014. His lawyer described Reyes as a family man who was employed and a student at College of Westchester.