A Coney Island man was sentenced on Oct. 16 to 25 years to life in prison for the murder of a construction worker in broad daylight in 2019, following his conviction of second-degree murder by a jury on Sept. 3, 2025.
Prosecutors said that on Feb. 4, 2019, 34-year-old Malik Fryar drove to a construction site on West 33rd Street near Neptune Avenue in Coney Island, where a group of job seekers had gathered to apply for construction work. Fryar exited his vehicle, leaving his wife in the passenger seat, and began arguing with one of the workers over job opportunities.
When the dispute escalated, Fryar went back to his car, retrieved an illegal loaded firearm, and fired multiple shots at the group of job seekers, striking 53-year-old Dorothy Dixon, a mother of six and a grandmother, several times in the torso and a 47-year-old man in the leg.
Dixon, an innocent bystander, was transported to Coney Island Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, while the male victim was treated for his injuries at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn.
Fryar fled the scene on foot to his nearby home while his wife drove the car to an unknown location. About a month later, the vehicle was found abandoned roughly five miles away in Brighton Beach.
On July 17, 2019, members of the NYPD Warrants Squad arrested Fryar after they discovered him in an apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, attempting to escape through an air conditioner duct.
“This was a senseless act of violence that took the life of a hardworking woman, devastating her family. Dorothy Dixon was a mother of six and grandmother of many more, who was just trying to earn a living when her life was viciously cut short,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “Gun violence is now at record lows in Brooklyn, and my office is committed to further driving down shootings and holding people such as this defendant responsible for their actions.”
