Prosecutors say the 21-year-old had planned the attack for weeks before firing a hunting arrow that grazed the victim’s face at the family home in Lawrence.
LAWRENCE, N.Y. — A 21-year-old Long Island man is accused of trying to kill his sister with a crossbow after waiting for her to return home from the gym, then firing a hunting arrow that grazed her face in the garage of their family home, police said.
Authorities said the woman, 28, survived the Friday night attack and was taken to a hospital in stable condition. Prosecutors said the case quickly moved beyond a violent family dispute because investigators found evidence of planning, recovered the arrow from the garage wall and said the defendant later admitted he had intended to kill his sister. The case drew attention because of the unusual weapon, the close family relationship and prosecutors’ claim that the attack had been in the works since Christmas.
Police said officers were called to a West Avenue residence in Lawrence at about 9:23 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13, after a report of an injured woman. When they arrived, they found the victim bleeding from the right side of her face. Investigators said she had just pulled into the attached garage after returning from the gym. According to prosecutors, she saw her brother, Samy Sedhom, sitting in a parked car across the street. Detectives said both siblings got out of their vehicles as she entered the code to close the garage. At that point, authorities said, she felt a sharp pain on the right side of her face and began bleeding. She called police, and officers later found a hunting arrow lodged in the back wall of the garage, a detail investigators said helped establish the path of the shot and the narrow margin by which the woman survived.
Sedhom, 21, was later arrested without incident and charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence and stalking, authorities said. Court documents cited by local television outlets said Sedhom admitted firing the crossbow at his sister and told investigators he had been planning to kill her since Christmas. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said the victim’s ear was split in half. “If the arrow had struck just a couple of inches over, we would be talking about a homicide,” Donnelly said in local TV remarks after the arraignment. Police said investigators searching the home recovered a box that had contained the crossbow, along with a Katana-style samurai sword and a laptop. Authorities have not publicly described any evidence from the laptop, and officials did not publicly explain why the sword was allegedly kept in the bedroom. A fuller account of the motive also had not been laid out in court records described in the reports.
The attack unfolded in Lawrence, a village on the South Shore of Nassau County, where violent crimes involving crossbows are rare enough to stand out even in a region that regularly sees major criminal cases. What made this case especially striking was not only the weapon but the alleged planning inside a family home. Prosecutors said the siblings had been feuding, and Donnelly described the conflict as a “brother-sister rivalry.” In one of the few motive details made public, she said the two had argued about the temperature in the house, with the sister preferring it cooler and her brother wanting it warmer. That explanation, if proved, would place the alleged attack in a pattern of domestic tension escalating into targeted violence. At the same time, several important questions remained unanswered in the public record, including whether there had been prior threats, whether family members or neighbors had seen warning signs and whether investigators believe the stalking count is tied to conduct over days, weeks or months before the shooting.
At his arraignment in Nassau County’s First District Court, Sedhom pleaded not guilty, according to published reports. A judge ordered him held without bail at the Nassau County jail and issued a full stay-away order protecting his sister. Prosecutors said the attempted murder count alone could carry a sentence of up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted. Public reports identified Feb. 18 as his next scheduled court date, though later proceedings were not detailed in the coverage reviewed. The case was still in the early procedural stage, with investigators and prosecutors expected to continue reviewing physical evidence recovered from the garage and bedroom, statements made after the arrest and any electronic material seized during the search. It also was not publicly clear whether defense lawyers would challenge the admissibility of any statements or search evidence, or whether prosecutors planned to present the case to a grand jury for possible indictment on the top count or related charges.
Neighbors told local television that, from the outside, the family appeared much like others on the block, adding to the shock after police cars and ambulances converged on the street. One neighbor told WABC that “families have problems just like everyone else,” and said it may have been “an argument that went too far.” That brief reaction captured the uncertainty surrounding the case: officials have laid out the mechanics of the shooting in unusual detail, but the deeper story of how a household dispute turned into an alleged murder plot remains incomplete. By the time officers arrived, the scene already held the central pieces of the prosecution’s account: an injured woman, a garage wall struck by an arrow and a suspect police said had been waiting for her return. The victim’s survival turned the case into an attempted killing prosecution rather than a homicide, but prosecutors made clear they see the outcome as the result of inches, not intent.
As of the latest public reports, Sedhom had been jailed without bail, his sister had survived the attack and a protection order remained in place. The next publicly identified milestone was his Feb. 18 court appearance, though no later update on the case was detailed in the reports reviewed.