A 67-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in prison after shooting a potential mugger during an attempted robbery. The incident took a tragic turn when Charles Foehner, residing in Queens, New York, resorted to lethal force.
Foehner, a retired doorman, appeared emotionless as he faced Queens County Criminal Court on Thursday for his sentencing. The events unfolded in the early hours of May 31, 2023, as Foehner made his way to a parking garage near his apartment in Queens.
During this late-night encounter, 32-year-old Cody Gonzalez approached Foehner, allegedly brandishing a sharp object and demanding money. Foehner responded by drawing his firearm and fatally shooting Gonzalez.
Subsequent investigations revealed that Gonzalez, who had a history of over a dozen arrests, was actually unarmed at the time and was holding a pen instead.
Following the incident, Foehner faced 26 charges related to the criminal possession of a weapon. However, he was not charged in connection with the shooting itself.
After killing Gonzalez on the spot, Foehner was charged with 26 counts of criminal possession of a weapon, but did not receive any charges related to the fatal shooting.
The entire confrontation was captured by a surveillance camera in a driveway outside Foehner’s apartment building in the quiet neighborhood of Kew Gardens in Queens, where he had lived with his wife, Jenny Speed.
Chilling video footage of the ordeal showed Gonzalez approach Foehner down the driveway before shots were fired from a distance of about eight feet.
Charles Foehner (right, seen here with his lawyer) will serve four years in prison as part of a plea deal after gunning down a would-be mugger during a robbery gone wrong outside his Queens apartment
Foehner whipped out a firearm and fatally shot the suspected robber, identified as 32-year-old Cody Gonzalez, during a late-night confrontation in May 2023
It later emerged that Gonzalez, who had more than a dozen prior arrests, was not armed during the altercation
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators later recovered more than two dozen firearms.
The haul included pistols, shotguns, rifles, three assault rifles, an AK47, 153 loaded high-capacity magazines, and two body armor vests in Foehner’s apartment.
He only had a license for five rifles, and told detectives that collecting firearms was his hobby.
‘I pulled the gun out of my pocket,’ he told prosecutors at the time, referring to his .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver.
‘It didn’t go off accidentally. I pulled the trigger. I emptied the revolver. Last night I was carrying a firearm because of the crime in the city…I’ve had it since the 1990s. I obtained it in a bar one night. The firearms are mine and mine alone.’
At the time, he told authorities that he was carrying an illegal pistol, which he used to shoot Gonzalez in the chest in self-defense, citing the rising crime rates in New York City as his justification.
Despite his claim, the Big Apple saw a slight overall decline in crime in 2023 – with the total reported incidents down by about 5 percent.
The city saw notably fewer shootings, homicides, robberies, burglaries and sexual assaults take place – all of which are classified as major crimes.
After obtaining a search warrant, investigators recovered more than two dozen firearms from Foehner’s apartment. Foehner (pictured in court) only had a license for five rifles
Foehner (left, pictured with his lawyer) was seen smoking a cigarette outside the courtroom Thursday ahead of his sentencing
Outgoing Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, celebrated the lower crime rates in 2024, highlighting that the total number of crimes fell 0.3 percent in the city, and arrests rose by nearly 20 percent.
‘I’ll say it over and over again until we all believe it and see it and hear it,’ he said at the time. ‘Crime is down. Jobs are up, and tourists are back in our city.’
The same trend was observed in 2024, with Gotham City experiencing a 15.5 percent decrease in December index crimes, making it the largest one-month decline since February 2021, government data shows.
It remains to be seen whether the city can maintain similar crime stats into 2025. However, the New York Police Department declared that, in the first 10 months of the year, the city experienced the lowest number of shooting incidents and shooting victims in recorded history.
Over the ten-month period, the city reported 596 shooting incidents and 744 shooting victims, the NYPD said.
