Town official claims self-defence in shooting of DoorDash driver in New York

A DoorDash Inc. delivery person holds an insulated bag at Chef Geoff's restaurant in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, March 26, 2020. (AP Photo)

An upstate New York town official accused of shooting and wounding a food delivery person says he was protecting his family and has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges.

Ring doorbell camera footage shows John Reilly III, the highway superintendent in Chester, a town nearly 60 miles (96 kilometres) north of Manhattan, shooting at the DoorDash driver’s car on May 2 as the person was trying to leave Reilly’s property. Prosecutors allege the shooting was unprovoked, saying the driver was lost and his cellphone battery was dead, as he only tried to see if Reilly had ordered the food he was trying to deliver.

But Reilly’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, said in a phone interview Tuesday that Reilly, worried about a home invasion, was defending his family after the driver insisted on entering his home.

Reilly pleaded not guilty Monday during an appearance at the Orange County courthouse in Goshen. The charges also include first-degree assault and weapons crimes. He did not comment while leaving the courthouse and remains free on bail.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler called the shooting a “horrifying” act of violence. The driver, who authorities have not named, was shot in the back and seriously wounded.

Video clips from Reilly’s Ring doorbell camera, obtained by TV station News 12 and the Times Union, show the series of events. One clip shows the driver walking up to Reilly’s front door with a plastic bag and ringing the doorbell. Another, from a short time later, appears to show the driver back in his car and Reilly exiting his house with a handgun. Reilly then fires a shot into his front lawn while saying, “Go.”

The video then shows Reilly shooting at the car as the driver is making a three-point turn in the driveway. He fires a third shot as the car is driving away.

Kenniff said the videos do not tell the full story.

Kenniff said Reilly’s 12-year-old daughter woke him up after the driver rang the doorbell and he answered the door, telling the driver he didn’t order any food. The driver, who was not wearing anything indicating he was from DoorDash, insisted on coming into the house to charge his phone, Kenniff said.

“My client, I think quite reasonably given the rash of home invasion robberies locally and around the country ... tells the gentleman to leave and advises that he’s going to get a gun that he uses for home protection, as a lot of people in rural areas justifiably do,” Kenniff said.

Kenniff said Reilly fired shots in an attempt to get the driver to leave his property and didn’t intend to harm the man.

“I think that this was a situation where my client reasonably believed that there was a threat and he took actions to try to protect his home and protect his family, and unfortunately there may have been unintended consequences,” Kenniff said.

Kenniff and his firm also represented Daniel Penny, a U.S. Marine veteran who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in December in connection with the chokehold death of a mentally ill man on a New York City subway in 2023.

Police executed a search warrant at Reilly’s house and seized eight illegally possessed guns, including the .45-caliber handgun used to shoot the driver, Hoovler said. While Reilly had a federal license to sell firearms, he did not have a New York state firearms license or pistol permit, making his possession of the guns illegal, Hoovler said.

“The unprovoked violence alleged in this case is truly horrifying,” Hoovler said in a statement.

Reilly is due back in court on July 2.

Dave Collins, The Associated Press