The fatal shootout that broke out during a botched home invasion earlier this month in Medford has claimed another life, as a second suspect shot during the burglary has died of his injuries, Suffolk prosecutors said.
Ernest Johnson, 28, of Rocky Point was being treated at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore for injuries he received during the Feb. 2 incident, but died during the weekend. His family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Johnson, who attorneys say was known as "Caution," was the third person involved in the gunfight that night to die.
Johnson, Edwin Frazier, 19, of Mastic and Jovan Phillips, 23, of Riverhead, broke into a Tremont Avenue home demanding marijuana and cash, police said.
Dane Aulak, 22, who lived there, was fatally shot during the home invasion, but not before getting to a gun dropped by one of the masked intruders and tossing it to his brother, Jesse, who shot Phillips and Johnson. Phillips was pronounced dead later that night.
Reached at home Tuesday, Barbara Aulak, the mother of the two brothers, said her family is "grieving unbelievably" from the loss of Dane -- "a wonderful boy and a great friend to everyone."
She didn't welcome the news of Johnson's death.
"It's a great loss for a parent to lose children," she said.
Frazier, who police say held the brothers' parents at gunpoint in another room, fled from the scene uninjured, but was arrested later. Frazier's attorney, Robert Macedonio of Central Islip, said Tuesday only that his client insists he shot no one during the home invasion.
Frazier and another co-defendant, Eric Calace, 19, of Miller Place are expected to be arraigned in Riverhead Wednesday on an indictment charging burglary and second-degree murder.
Police say Calace planned the robbery of Dane Aulak, who police say was Calace's drug dealer, and drove the men to the house. Calace is the grandson of Long Island developer Arthur Calace, who built several bowling alleys as well as the 160,000-square-foot Sports Plus recreational complex in Lake Grove.
