By Gus Saltonstall
The man who shot his boss on the Upper West Side in the fall of 2024 was sentenced to more than a decade in prison on Thursday, the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced.
Eduardo Diaz, 44, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for shooting his 47-year-old boss on November 7, 2024, near West 68th Street and Columbus Avenue.
“Eduardo Diaz has been held accountable for committing a vicious shooting against his former boss which recklessly spilled onto a public city street,” Bragg said in a news release. “This attack significantly injured the victim who is still recovering to this day. Combatting gun violence is our top priority, and we will not tolerate the use of firearms to harm fellow New Yorkers.”
On the day of the shooting, Diaz walked into his former workplace at Lincoln Business Machines, a computer store at 111 West 68th Street, and attempted to shoot his former boss, according to the DA’s Office. The gun, however, jammed, and the confrontation spilled out onto the street, where Diaz fired multiple more shots, striking the victim in his ankle, hip, and shoulder, the DA said.
He also fired stray bullets that blew out the glass of a bus shelter on Columbus Avenue, between West 67th and 68th streets.
Diaz then fled into the West 72nd Street and Central Park West train station, where he escaped into the tunnels, police said at the time. He was arrested the following day at his home in Queens, where a firearm was also recovered, according to the Manhattan DA.
Diaz was specifically convicted of attempted assault in the first degree, according to the Manhattan DA.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
Finally – now THAT’s a reasonable sentence! After all, while he certainly started off in the wrong, his gun quickly realized his mistake and the potential consequences, and smartly jammed itself to prevent an even greater tragedy. Upon realizing what he was about to do, he quickly snapped out of his mildly ill-advised behavior and only fired several more times, with the mitigating circumstances of doing it at a public bus stop. Coordinating for the bus stop to be less crowded of those pesky nannies and middle-schoolers was certainly another smart, mitigating aspect he fully planned
Not a murder after all – noone died, right? Wonderful news in the prospects of fighting gun crime – shoot someone multiple times, retire free!
This is a typical sentence for non lethal shots … nothing new at all. While it’s not enough time, it’s not modern to get 15 to life.
Why not attempted murder? And given at least 25 years?
Why the light sentence? He should be locked away for far longer, IMO. I don’t want him back on the streets ever.
Why attempted assault vs. attempted murder? I’ve never heard of assaulting someone with a gun unless you hit them over the head with it. Maybe this was a plea bargain?
Finally, some sanity on the UWS!
If you try to murder someone but you fail, or the medical personnel save the victim’s life, why is it attempted murder or, in this case, assault, with a lighter sentence? That assailant is a murderer. They shouldn’t get the benefit of a lighter sentence because their target managed somehow to live.
By definition, a murder needs to involve a death, but I agree it’s unclear why Diaz wasn’t charged with attempted murder (and longer sentence) since killing his ex-boss was clearly his intention.
Only 15 years? Seriously?
Bernard Goetz served only eight. This is nothing new.
Does anyone else find Bragg’s statement really….oddly stated? With weird turns of phrase? I had to read it through twice before I fully understood it.