QUEENS, NY – Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz recently announced that Atekel Donaldson, 26, of Far Rockaway, was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the death of 15-year-old Youssef Soliman, who was shot while getting off a city bus in Far Rockaway in February 2018.
Donaldson pleaded guilty in December to first-degree manslaughter. Justice Kenneth Holder sentenced him to a determinate term of 17 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision. According to the charges, on February 8, 2018, Donaldson approached Soliman as he was getting off a city bus and shot him twice, striking him in the hand and torso, fatally wounding him.
District Attorney Katz stated, “A teenager’s life was senselessly cut short by gun violence, which continues to steal family, friends, and loved ones from our communities. We cannot relent until we end the plague of illegal guns on our streets.” The case was prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau under the supervision of several assistant district attorneys and executive assistant district attorneys.