Terry Brooks has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally possessing ammunition and using a “ghost gun” in a shooting that injured an innocent bystander in the Bronx, New York. The sentencing was announced by Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Garnett imposed the sentence and also presided over Brooks’s guilty plea.
“Terry Brooks armed himself with an arsenal of weapons and shot an innocent bystander on the busy streets of New York City, seriously injuring that person,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. “Brooks cannot be in a position to harm or kill other New Yorkers. Today’s sentence protects New Yorkers from a violent, gun-toting offender and sends a message to anyone considering the same path: New York will not tolerate it.”
Court documents state that between July 2023 and August 2024, Brooks purchased more than 50 firearm components online and possessed nine firearms, including two un-serialized ghost guns. On November 12, 2023, while on a public sidewalk in the Bronx, Brooks fired at another man during a dispute but struck a bystander instead. The bullet hit her abdomen and lodged near her spine, requiring emergency surgery.
Surveillance footage and records led officers to identify Brooks as the shooter. Search warrants executed at his residences on August 14, 2024, resulted in the recovery of eight firearms—among them ghost guns—along with ammunition and firearm parts. Ballistics tests confirmed that shell casings from the scene matched one of Brooks’s recovered ghost guns. He was arrested on August 21, 2024; at that time officers found another firearm.
In addition to his prison term, Brooks received three years of supervised release and must pay restitution to the victim.
Jay Clayton commended Homeland Security Investigations and the New York City Police Department for their investigative efforts.
The prosecution was managed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Grossinger and James Mandilk from the General Crimes Unit.
