New York town official who shot lost DoorDash driver convicted of
assault
[March 27, 2026]
By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI
An upstate New York town official who shot and wounded a lost DoorDash
delivery driver was convicted Thursday of assault and firearms charges,
authorities said.
John Reilly III, the highway superintendent in Chester — a town nearly
60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Manhattan — now faces up to 25 years
behind bars on the top charge. Sentencing is scheduled for May.
Reilly had maintained he was acting in self-defense to protect his
family and home when he shot at Alpha Barry’s car as the delivery driver
was leaving Reilly’s property on May 2, 2025. But Orange County District
Attorney David M. Hoovler said in a statement after the verdict that he
showed a “depraved indifference to human life.”
Video from Reilly’s Ring doorbell camera published by news outlets
showed the driver walking up to Reilly’s front door with a plastic bag
and ringing the doorbell.
Another clip showed the driver back inside his car as Reilly exited his
house with a handgun and fired a shot into his lawn, saying, “Go.” Then,
as the driver made a three-point turn in the driveway, the footage
appeared to show Reilly shoot at the car and again as it drove away.
One of the shots hit Barry in the back, according to authorities. The
driver later underwent emergency surgery and had over 2 feet (.6 meters)
of his small bowels removed, prosecutors said.
Reilly’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, has said that on the night of the
shooting, Reilly’s daughter woke him up after the driver rang the
doorbell. Reilly told Barry he didn’t order any food, but the driver
insisted on coming into the house to charge his phone, leading Reilly to
worry about a home invasion, Kenniff previously told The Associated
Press. Kenniff said Thursday he is “confident that we will have a viable
appeal."
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On the stand, Barry testified that he did not ask to enter Reilly's
home, only to have his phone charged, according to News12
Westchester.
Reilly’s defense lawyer said his client had struggled to communicate
with Barry, then a recent immigrant from Guinea, the outlet said.
Authorities later found a number of guns at Reilly's home that he
was not licensed to own, according to prosecutors.
Jurors had started their deliberations on Tuesday. Reilly was
acquitted of one assault charge but convicted of a different assault
charge that centered on whether he acted recklessly. He had also
been charged with attempted murder, but the jury did not have to
consider that charge after finding him guilty on the second assault
charge.
Shootings of people who mistakenly went to the wrong house have
tested the limits of stand your ground laws in recent years.
In 2023, a 66-year-old man in rural upstate New York fatally shot a
20-year-old woman when the vehicle she was riding in mistakenly
turned into his driveway. He said he believed his home was under
siege and fired a warning shot. After deliberating for less than an
hour, a jury convicted him of second-degree murder.
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