LONG ISLAND, N.Y. (TCN) – A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the 2021 acid attack that left a college student with severe injuries, vison loss, and scarring.
As previously reported, Nafiah Ikram, a 21-year-old student, was attacked in her driveway on March 17, 2021, by a suspect wearing a hood. Sulfuric acid was thrown in her face and over the past few years, Ikram underwent several surgeries. On Feb. 9, 29-year-old Terrell Campbell was charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and unlawfully possessing noxious materials, and pleaded not guilty during his arraignment.
Campbell was an aspiring rapper who went by the pseudonym Young Based God and allegedly created and uploaded a music video to YouTube in which he sings, “On the street in the night like a hit man assassin, trying to run up and have your face burned in acid.” At the time of Campbell’s arrest, police had not yet announced a motive.
WPIX reports that on March 24, 31-year-old Shaquille Coke was arrested and booked into jail. According to police, he allegedly masterminded the attack on Ikram. During his first appearance with a judge, Coke insisted he was innocent, but prosecutors say the evidence against him is overwhelming.
Prosecutors allege that Coke, who went on two dates with Ifram, was angry he rejected his advances, and got his longtime friend, Campbell, to attack her. In an interview following the hearing, Ikram said that she was angry, sad, and confused, and that since they had only gone on two dates, “we were never in a relationship like that.”
According to WPIX, prosecutors allege that Coke drove Campbell’s Nissan Altima away from the scene as a getaway car, WPIX reports. The New York Post reports that Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Brian Rodriguez said, “What we now know is that it was this defendant sitting in the driver’s seat of that car, waiting for his accomplice to return after carrying out this defendant’s twisted version of revenge.”
During Coke’s interviews with investigators in the ensuing years, he allegedly mentioned someone with the nickname “Young Based Something,” according to WPIX.
Investigators found text messages between Campbell and Coke in which Coke allegedly said that “karma would take care of” Ikram, according to WPIX.
The New York Post reports that according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, Coke allegedly “disgustingly and cruelly, called Nafia ‘Freddy Krueger.” Krueger is the main character in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise and has burn scars across his whole face.
Coke was arrested a week after the statute of limitations expired – the deadline under state law which requires prosecutors to charge suspects. On March 24, the district attorney said that there are exceptions to the rule and that such exceptions could apply to this case. At his arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree assault, criminal possession of a weapon and unlawfully possessing noxious materials, according to the New York Post.
WPIX reports that Coke’s next scheduled hearing is April 20. According to WABC, if convicted, Coke could face up to 25 years in prison.
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