News: Brooklyn Murder Caught On Film
(Long Island, N.Y.) Another grisly, execution-style murder was caught by video surveillance footage in Brooklyn, making it the second fatal crime captured in the borough in less than a week. The victim was a twenty-four-year-old man who was not from the area. Once again, it was disturbing to see what little was done for the man by city bystanders during the final moments of his life.
The shooting occurred last Saturday at roughly eight o’clock that night on Nostrand Avenue in East Flatbush. The area and street in particular has been known as a scene of violence and killings. One resident estimated that he witnessed fifteen murders occur on the block within the last twenty-two years after moving to the area.
The victim was from Red Hill, South Carolina and had been staying with his aunt and visiting relatives in Brooklyn. He was outside his uncle’s Crown Fried Chicken restaurant at the time of the incident. The restaurant advertises as a coffee, breakfast, and pizza shop.
Family members of the victim claim that he didn’t know anyone in the area and couldn’t have had problems with anybody. They believe the twenty-four-year-old was slain in a case of mistaken identity. He was the father of a one-year-old daughter and awaiting the birth of his second child.
The surveillance video captures the victim on his cell phone just outside the store. He is dressed in a white hat, sneakers, and sweatshirt. A passerby walks on the sidewalk between him and the killer just before the shooting.
The shooter dressed in black, fires two bullets at a point blank distance into the victim’s chest. He flees the scene and his face was not captured by cameras. The victim falls to the ground and rolls over to his side as his hat falls off. He struggles to come to his feet before collapsing.
People inside the store immediately come outside and witness the victim’s struggle. In the final moments of his life no one seems to help or comfort him by kneeling down. Within moments, he is surrounded by a group of bystanders, one of whom allegedly snaps a cell phone photo of the fatality.
The video released spanned just two minutes and twelve seconds. Reports stated that the forty-year-old mother of the victim, who is also a nurse, claimed to have been disgusted about the lack of help her son received during his final moments. She wanted to know what kind of city could stand back and watch a man struggle for life instead of turning him on his side to assist him in breathing.
The twenty-four-year-old victim was eventually brought to Kings County Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Some reports have stated that a second video surveillance tape, which documented inside the restaurant, showed the killer handling an object at his waist prior to the shooting. The object, which could have been the murder weapon, was later transported to his jacket pocket.
Other reports have stated that video footage has captured the shooter pacing around the sidewalk before pulling the trigger. Again, this is one of many gruesome acts of cold-blooded murder that have been captured in recent weeks. Less than a week ago a man was killed in a Brooklyn apartment building after stepping out of an elevator and being shot from behind.
