Former prisoner arrested for opening fire during botched Brooklyn jewelry store robbery

Police said on Wednesday that the former prisoner was arrested for opening fire during a botched robbery of a Brooklyn jewelry store when he hit a worker.

Joseph Gonzalez, 45, was arrested Tuesday on charges of attempted murder, robbery and possession of a weapon.

He is accused of breaking into an A&M Jewelry store on Fifth Avenue near 48th Street in Sunset Park with a gun at the ready around 1:55 p.m. on February 5.

Security camera video released by the NYPD shows the scammer fired, breaking a shop window and injuring a 24-year-old worker in the upper body, police said. The shooter ran away empty-handed towards 49th Street.

The worker was treated at NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn and released.

Gonzalez, who lives next door, was charged with attempted murder in January 2022 after he was accused of shooting a 20-year-old man in the shoulder a few blocks from a jewelry store.

He has previous arrests dating back to 1992, when he was a teenager, on charges including robbery and drugs, police say. Records show that he was released on parole in 1996 after being sentenced to four years in prison for burglary in Staten Island.