—Appeal by the defendant from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Plug, J.), rendered May 20, 1996, convicting him of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, upon a jury verdict, and imposing sentence.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed.
Contrary to the defendant’s contention, the record in this case does not demonstrate that a Batson violation occurred
Furthermore, the prosecution did not exhaust all of its peremptory challenges, and three black venirepersons remained on the jury (see, People v Harper, 124 AD2d 593). Accordingly, the burden of overcoming the inference of purposeful discrimination never shifted to the People (see, People v Durant, 250 AD2d 698). The fact that the trial court permitted the People, upon the prosecutor’s request, to offer facially-neutral reasons supporting the peremptory challenges does not render academic the issue of whether the defendant carried his initial burden to make a prima facie showing that the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges were motivated by an intent to invidiously discriminate against black persons (see, People v Durant, supra; People v Ocasio, 253 AD2d 720). O’Brien, J. P., Krausman, Florio and H. Miller, JJ., concur.