Prosecutors say Samy Sedhom told police he had been planning the attack since Christmas.
LAWRENCE, N.Y. — A 21-year-old Long Island man is charged with attempted murder after prosecutors said he waited for his sister to return home from the gym and then fired a hunting arrow from a crossbow, grazing the right side of her face in the family’s garage.
The case drew quick attention in Nassau County because investigators said the attack was planned, not sudden, and because the victim survived what prosecutors described as a near-fatal strike. Samy Sedhom was arraigned the day after the shooting and pleaded not guilty. Authorities said his 28-year-old sister was hospitalized in stable condition, while detectives seized the crossbow, other items from the home and statements they say tied him to a months-long plan to kill her.
Police said officers were called to a home on West Avenue in Lawrence shortly before 9:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, after a report of a woman bleeding from the face. By the time they arrived, the woman, 28, had already told authorities she had just returned from the gym and pulled into the attached garage. Investigators said she began entering the code to close the garage door when she felt a sharp pain on the right side of her face. She then realized she was bleeding and called police. According to investigators, the arrow had been fired from across or near the street after she noticed her brother sitting in a parked vehicle nearby. A neighbor, speaking to WABC, said families can have conflicts “just like everyone else,” but added that the violence stunned people in the neighborhood. Police later found a hunting arrow lodged in the back wall of the garage, a detail that helped detectives trace the path of the shot and the narrow margin by which the victim survived.
Authorities identified the defendant as Samy Sedhom, 21, and said he was taken into custody without incident. Court records and local reports said detectives found a box in his bedroom that had contained the crossbow, along with a Katana-style sword and a laptop that were seized during the investigation. Prosecutors said Sedhom admitted firing the crossbow and told investigators he had been planning to kill his sister since Christmas. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said the victim’s ear was split in half and that the arrow missed a much more lethal impact by only a small distance. “We would be talking about a homicide,” Donnelly said, according to News 12. Officials have not publicly described any mental health diagnosis, and court records available in local coverage do not spell out a full motive. Donnelly said the dispute appeared to stem from a “brother-sister rivalry,” including arguments over the temperature inside the home, saying the sister preferred it cooler while her brother wanted it warmer. Even with that explanation, investigators have not laid out a broader motive in court filings made public through news reports.
The setting of the case has also sharpened attention around it. Lawrence is part of Nassau County’s Five Towns area on Long Island, a dense suburban region where violent attacks involving a crossbow are unusual enough to stand out immediately. Police described the weapon as a crossbow firing a hunting arrow, not a firearm, but prosecutors treated the attack as a deliberate attempt to kill. The woman’s injuries were serious enough to require hospital treatment, though authorities said she was in stable condition. That condition became an important dividing line in the case: prosecutors argued the result could easily have been a murder charge had the arrow struck a few inches differently. The allegations also suggest planning and surveillance. Investigators said Sedhom waited in a parked car for his sister to return home, watched her enter the garage area and attacked at the moment she was focused on closing the garage door. That sequence, if proved, would support the stalking charge alongside the attempted murder count and would give prosecutors a clearer argument that the attack was targeted and premeditated rather than the result of a brief fight inside the home.
Sedhom was arraigned Sunday in Nassau District Court and entered not guilty pleas to attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence and stalking. Local court coverage identified the attempted murder count as second-degree attempted murder, with the assault and stalking charges filed at the felony level as well. A judge ordered that he be held without bail in the Nassau County Jail and issued a full stay-away order protecting his sister. Patch reported that court documents listed the Legal Aid Society of Nassau County as his representation at that stage. The first follow-up court appearance was set for Wednesday, Feb. 18. Prosecutors have not announced any superseding charges, and no public filing cited in local coverage indicates a plea negotiation or dismissal. What comes next is likely to center on evidence collection and court review: statements attributed to Sedhom, physical evidence recovered from the house, the arrow embedded in the garage wall and any digital material on the seized laptop. It is also not clear from the reports now public whether surveillance video, neighborhood cameras or forensic testing will play a major role as the case moves forward.
In the neighborhood, the attack left residents with an ordinary suburban scene suddenly tied to a grim criminal case. The house, the garage and the parked vehicle described by investigators became central pieces of a story that prosecutors say began weeks earlier, around Christmas, and ended in seconds when the arrow struck. The details gave the case an unsettling mix of domestic familiarity and calculated violence: a woman returning from the gym, a garage code being entered, a brother allegedly lying in wait and an arrow ending up in a wall after grazing her face. Officials have released few direct comments from the victim, and police have not named her publicly. That has left the public record shaped mostly by court allegations, police statements and short comments from neighbors and prosecutors. Even so, the facts already described in open court suggest why the case drew outsized attention. It was not only the unusual weapon, but also the claim that the defendant had chosen his target in advance and waited for the right moment. For Nassau County residents, the next stages will test how much of that account prosecutors can prove with physical evidence and sworn testimony.
For now, the defendant remains jailed, the victim is alive and under court protection, and the case is moving through Nassau County court. The next major milestone is the scheduled court appearance on Feb. 18, when prosecutors and defense lawyers are expected to address the charges and the status of the evidence.