It’s one of those stories that makes you feel uneasy. A random moment on a sidewalk that changes multiple lives forever. When you hear the name Gary Anderson in the context of a "sucker punch," your mind might jump to the world of professional darts—maybe a heated clash with Gerwyn Price or a tense standoff at the oche. But the reality is far darker and has nothing to do with sports.
We’re talking about a 2017 street attack in Brooklyn that turned into a multi-year legal saga.
Honestly, the details are gut-wrenching. In June 2017, a man named Domingo Diego Tapia was just trying to get home. He was a 38-year-old father of two, an immigrant from Mexico who worked at a fruit stand. He was riding his bike down Fulton Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant around 1:30 a.m. He didn't know Gary Anderson. He wasn't looking for a fight. He was just pedaling home to his family.
Then, out of nowhere, Anderson stepped up and leveled him.
What Actually Happened on Fulton Street?
The Gary Anderson sucker punch wasn't a duel or a back-and-forth dispute. It was a single, unprovoked blow to the face. The force of the punch knocked Tapia off his bicycle, causing his head to slam against the concrete pavement.
Imagine that for a second. One second you're thinking about seeing your kids, and the next, your life is effectively over.
Tapia suffered catastrophic brain trauma. He didn't get back up. He was rushed to the hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. While he eventually started breathing on his own again, he never truly "woke up" in the way his family hoped. He spent nearly seven years in a vegetative state, a living ghost of the man he used to be.
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The Initial Legal "Loophole"
Back in 2017, the legal system had a bit of a dilemma. Gary Anderson was arrested after a tipster saw him working out at a gym and recognized him from surveillance footage. Initially, the charges were surprisingly light.
Because Tapia was still alive—even if only by a thread—prosecutors struggled to pin the highest-level charges on Anderson right away. Eventually, in 2019, Anderson pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.
He got three years.
For a family watching their father wither away in a hospital bed, three years felt like a slap in the face. Anderson served his time and was released on parole in May 2022. By November 2023, he was off parole entirely. He was a free man walking the same streets where the attack happened.
But there was a catch in the plea deal.
The 2024 Turning Point and New Charges
Life—and death—caught up with the case in March 2024. After nearly seven years of fighting, Domingo Diego Tapia finally passed away.
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That changed everything.
In February 2025, authorities moved in. Because of a specific stipulation in that 2019 plea agreement, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office was able to reopen the books. Gary Anderson, now 34, was re-arrested and walked out of the 81st Precinct in handcuffs once again.
This time, the stakes are much higher. He is facing:
- First-degree manslaughter
- Second-degree manslaughter
- Criminally negligent homicide
If convicted on these new charges, he’s looking at up to 15 years in prison. It's a rare instance of the law reaching back across a decade to fix what many perceived as an initial failure in justice.
Why People Get Confused
If you searched for this and expected to see a video of a Scottish guy throwing a dart, you aren't alone. The "other" Gary Anderson is a legend in the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation). He’s known for being a bit "grumpy" on stage, frequently complaining about opponents "gamesmanship" or even—in a famously bizarre incident—accusing an opponent of farting on stage to distract him.
But the Gary Anderson sucker punch has zero connection to the Flying Scotsman.
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It’s important to distinguish the two because the Brooklyn case is a somber reminder of the "knockout game" or random street violence trends that gripped New York City in the mid-2010s. This wasn't a sporting rivalry; it was a "senseless, unprovoked attack," as described by the Brooklyn DA’s office.
The Human Cost
We often talk about these things in terms of "charges" and "sentences," but the real story is Esther Diaz, Tapia’s wife. For years, she had to tell her two young sons that their dad was "just sleeping" because of a fever. She spent years being the sole breadwinner, navigating a foreign legal system, and waiting for a justice that took almost eight years to arrive.
The Gary Anderson sucker punch serves as a legal benchmark now. It shows that even if a defendant "serves their time" for an assault, the law can still hold them accountable for the ultimate outcome if the victim eventually dies from those injuries.
What to Know if You’re Following the Case
The case is currently moving through the Brooklyn court system as of early 2026. Anderson’s defense will likely argue about the "gap" in time—the seven years between the punch and the death—and whether other medical factors contributed to Tapia’s passing. However, the prosecution's medical examiners are firm: the 2017 trauma started the clock.
Takeaways for those following the story:
- Check the context: Ensure you are looking at the 2017/2024 Brooklyn criminal case, not darts news.
- Legal Precedent: This case is a prime example of "delayed" homicide charges following an initial assault conviction.
- Community Impact: The incident remains a major point of discussion for NYC bike safety advocates and those pushing for stricter penalties on random street violence.
The legal proceedings are expected to continue throughout the year. For now, a family finally has the chance to see a different kind of closure than the one they were offered in 2019.