Suspect in two-year-old triple shooting arrested in Virginia

MIDDLETOWN – The man believed to have shot and wounded three men on a downtown Middletown city street early in the morning of January 29, 2006, has been apprehended in the state of Virginia.

Middletown Police Chief Matthew Byrne said Friday that Gregor Collins, 30, had fled the state shortly after the incident that occurred on the sidewalk outside what was then the Caribe Gardens restaurant at 21 West Main Street, right across from the police station.

An Orange County grand jury indicted Collins on a charge of first-degree assault on March 2006.

Through close communications between Middletown PD, the FBI and the Petersburg, VA Police, Collins was located and apprehended in Virginia, Chief Byrne said.

“Here is an individual who shot three people in a cowardly act, then left the area and was basically hiding from law enforcement for the last two years,” he said. “We did not relent here in the Middletown Police Department and we credit the FBI and also New York State Police and the City of Petersburg Police Department for working cooperatively with us so that we could bring him to justice.”

Collins is being held pending extradition back to Orange County, NY to face the charges.

Byrne said all three wounded victims have since recovered.