A Hempstead man was convicted of all counts, including attempted murder charges, for a 2023 shooting at a bar on the Nautical Mile in Freeport that struck and seriously injured two victims and caused the bar’s security guard to become paralyzed from the neck down.
On July 15, 2023, at Agua on the Mile, a bar on the Nautical Mile in Freeport, Tiray Clemmoons got into a verbal altercation with the manager and was denied re-entry to the bar by a security guard. Moments later, at approximately 10:12 p.m., Clemmins returned to the bar in a black sedan, got out, and immediately began shooting at the 23-year-old security guard. The defendant fired six rounds from a .357 firearm, striking the security guard and another innocent bystander.
The security guard was shot in the back, severely injuring his spinal cord. The victim was transported to South Nassau Hospital, where he underwent emergency life-saving surgery. The shooting paralyzed the man from the neck down and he will never walk or regain full use of his arms.
Another innocent bystander was struck by two of the defendant’s bullets, in the neck and scrotum, which also required the victim to undergo surgery. Clemmons fled the scene after the shooting and disposed of the firearm in the canal behind the bar.
Clemmons, 34, was arrested on July 15, 2023, by members of the Nassau County Police Department’s Gang Investigations Squad, First Precinct Squad, and the Freeport Police Department. Four days later, NCPD divers recovered the gun.
The trial began on September 2, 2025, and the jury deliberated for less than five hours before delivering their verdict. Clemmons was convicted on September 16, 2025, after a jury trial before Judge Meryl Berkowitz of two counts of Attempted Murder in the Second Degree and two counts of Assault in the First Degree (all Class B violent felonies); Criminal Use of a Firearm in the First Degree (a Class B felony); and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree (both Class C violent felonies).
Clemmons is due back in court on October 16, 2025, for sentencing and faces up to fifty years in prison.
“Tiray Clemmons was furious that he had been thrown out of a Nautical Mile bar, and he wanted payback. Instead of just walking away, Clemmons pulled out a gun and opened fire on the crowded outdoor bar, firing six shots at the security guard he believed had wronged him,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
“That 23-year-old security guard was just doing his job, and his life was forever changed by a single bullet,” Donnelly continued. “Paralyzed from the neck down from the shooting, he can no longer care for his three-year-old daughter and will spend the rest of his life in a nursing facility. Clemmons’ other unintended victim also underwent emergency surgery for his injuries. Clemmons did not give a single thought to the terror he would cause that night and the lives he would shatter. All he wanted was retribution. I thank the jury for their careful consideration of the extensive evidence of this defendant’s guilt and for convicting him on all counts.”