Inside Brooklyn Supreme Court House. Nicole Anderson/ The Brooklyn Ink

An eyewitness in a double murder trial testified in Kings County Criminal Court Thursday that he saw the defendant, Sean Steer, shoot three times at one of the victims.

The eyewitness, Mr. Hunt, said he fled, only to discover later that the second victim at the shooting scene in Prospect Heights was his brother, Vance Rock.

“I looked in the ambulance and my brother wasn’t moving,” Hunt said. “His chest wasn’t moving up and down at all.  He was lifeless.”

On July 18^th, Steer was arrested for allegedly shooting Vance Rock and Darrian Delk after a heated verbal exchange at a block party Delk and Rock were sitting in their car at Washington Avenue and St. John’s Place when the defendant walked up and started firing bullets at them said Police.

Responding to questions from Assistant District Attorney Robert Walsh, Hunt said that moments earlier he had pulled up on his motorcycle next to his brother’s Chevy Caprice.  His brother told him that he was “having trouble with some guys” who were standing nearby, Hunt testified, and that his brother said, “looks like these guys are hating on me.”

Hunt learned that his brother had hit a guy he described as the “little guy with glasses” before he had arrived.

As the Hunt stood resting on his bike, he claimed that a guy he hadn’t noticed before came up and shot three bullets at Delk. The witness then took off on his bike.  It was after he returned a short while later that he discovered that his brother had been shot in the head and killed.

Hunts’ two brothers were speaking to police at the scene. Hunt told his brothers, “not to mention the fight to the officers. I wanted to see how I would go about handling things myself—thinking about taking things into my own hands and find out who killed my brother.”

Walsh asked, “Were you thinking of revenge?”

“Yes,” replied Hunt.

Walsh continued to question Hunt about his conversation with the detectives at the hospital.

“I didn’t tell Detective Perez that my brother knocked out the guy with glasses.”

However, a few weeks later, Hunt decided to come clean and tell the detectives everything.

Just as Walsh was asking why, Judge Joel M. Goldberg interjected and warned Walsh not to lead the witness.

“What changed your mind?” asked Judge Goldberg.

“A lot happened at home. Worse to lose another one [another son] and doing something stupid and going away for the rest of my life,” said Hunt.

A few weeks after that conversation, Hunt came to the precinct and identified the defendant in a police line-up.

The prosecution put a photograph of the car up on the screen and asked Hunt to show where he was parked on his motorcycle in relation to the car. Hunt pointed and said his wheel was only a few feet away from the wheel of his brother’s car.

“I had no difficulty seeing the guy with glasses or the defendant,” said Hunt.

Hunt told the court that he was still standing in the very same place when the three bullets were shot.

After the prosecution finished their line of questioning, defense attorney, Mr. Rodriguez, stood up and addressed the witness, “You have two violent felony convictions, correct?”

“Yes,” Hunt replied.

Hunt revealed under further questioning that he had served prison terms for shooting an off duty police officer in the leg and for robbery.

Judge Goldberg cut in to the testimony to explain to the jury that Hunt was not on trial, but that this information is relevant because it speaks to a witness’ credibility.

Rodriquez reminded Hunt that he initially told the detectives that he had left before the shots were fired, and had failed to mention the fight between Rock and the “little guy with glasses.”

As the cross-examination continued, Rodriguez attempted to show the inconsistencies and holes in Hunt’s testimony.  Hunt responded gruffly at times.

It is the second time he has testified. The trial continues.

22-year-old Kyle Decoteau was shot and killed in Bed-Stuy in July. (Picture courtesy of the Kyle Decoteau Foundation)

Kyle Decoteau, 22, was shot and killed in Bedford-Stuyvesant in the early hours of July 20, 2011.

His death and its aftermath, which saw a wave of anti-crime sentiment ripple through the neighborhood, highlighted two facts about Bed-Stuy: though safer than in the past, it’s still plagued by crime; and its residents are fed up with the plague.

“It is time for community members to speak out,” said Kurtis Miller, who tutored Decoteau in math, reading, and writing for six years. “Criminals need to be made to understand that their actions have an effect on people, and themselves as well, in time.”

Bed-Stuy’s reputation as a dangerous neighborhood had even seeped into pop culture. Billy Joel’s 1980 single “You May Be Right” used the phrase “I walked through Bedford-Stuy alone” as evidence against the singer’s own sanity. Jay-Z, who grew up in Bed-Stuy’s famous Marcy Houses, raps about rising from the mean streets of Brooklyn to superstardom, “from Marcy to Madison Square.”

NYPD crime statistics corroborated the gist of the performers’ words and the reality of Bed Stuy’s violent past. There were 120 murders in 1990 in the neighborhood, which is comprised of the 79^th and 81^st precincts. There were also 3,886 robberies—more than ten per day.

But over the course of the next decade, crime rates fell dramatically. In 2001, Bed-Stuy’s precincts reported 43 murders and 1,046 robberies. Between 1990 and 2001, total instances of the “seven major felonies”—murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny, and grand larceny auto—fell by 66 percent.

Ten years later, crime rates are hovering in an uneasy spot: much lower than in the 90’s and still declining, but still too high. Last year, there were 29 murders in the neighborhood. That was enough to give Bed-Stuy, with a population of 161,290, an intentional homicide rate of nearly 18 per 100,000 residents, almost four times the national rate of 4.8 per 100,000, according to FBI statistics.

The rate is more or less on track to remain the same in 2011.

According to Kim Best, president of the 79^th Precinct Community Council and chairperson of Bed-Stuy’s Civic Safety Committee, community concern has been a key factor in the fight against crime.

“It’s very important that the community has taken safety into their own hands,” she said.“The NYPD can’t be everywhere: they can’t put a police officer on every block.”

One way that has been effective has been the establishment of action groups and block associations.

“I oversee more than 200 block associations,” she said. “At night on streets where a lot of crime happens, we have block watches. Certain people will be assigned to monitor the block at night, usually from inside their home. And if anything happens, they have the police on the phone right away.”

According to Best, the number of block associations in the area has grown dramatically since she first became involved with the Civic Safety Committee a decade ago.

Still, 23 people have been killed in Bed-Stuy this year.

One of them was Kyle Decoteau, shot twice on a stoop while trying to cool off on a hot summer night.In the wake of his death, his friends and family set out to galvanize the people of Bed-Stuy.

Ann Decoteau, Kyle’s mother, founded a nonprofit public charity, the Kyle Decoteau Foundation, in the aftermath of her son’s death. It represents just the sort of community-born resistance to crime that Best described as crucial.

The group organizes rallies and is raising money to provide counseling for kids and young men that have participated in or fallen victim to gang-related crime. At a march against violence organized by the foundation and held on Nov. 25, members of Kyle’s family, his friends, and people who had never met him walked through Bed-Stuy, shouting and chanting, their intolerance for crime on full and powerful display.

Decoteau’s tutor, Kurtis Miller, was also moved by his former pupil’s death. He wrote an open letter to the community, published in late August by local media outlets, pleading for peace and sensibility.

“Peace,” he wrote, “is a spiritual rest from within us, an unexplainable feeling far from our own conscious understanding that conquers the very circumstances which cause us to treat one another unkindly.”

Miller is no stranger to people treating each other unkindly. His brother was murdered in Harlem in 1996. He now considers it his duty to use his intimate knowledge of loss and tragedy as a weapon against crime.

“It’s too late for Kyle,” he says. “But there will be so many more like him if we [community members] don’t speak up.”

More Stories on The Brooklyn Ink:

Soccer Inspires Kids in Crown Heights

Brooklynites Cautious as Subway Theft Rises

Brownsville Street Gangs to Attempt Peace Talk

The defense attorney representing Trevor Anderson, who is charged with shooting Erick Brown-Gordon in March 2010 during an altercation near Pine Street and Stanley Avenue, focused his summation on the credibility of Diana Perez, who he said had drunk nearly 30 ounces of alcohol the night of the shooting.

Earlier in the trial Perez testified that she saw Anderson shoot four bullets into the torso of Erick Brown-Gordon, her boyfriend at the time.  The victim was seriously injured, but survived.

“This woman was blitzed,” Defense Attorney Michael Pate said, arguing to the jury that her testimony was inconsistent and suspicious. “You [have to] wonder what the woman remembered.”

The Assistant District Attorney Kyle Reeves did not deny that Perez was intoxicated, but argued that her testimony was reliable. Using a power point presentation, he attempted to demonstrate that there was “no material difference in testimony from previous statement[s].”

Perez also testified that she had previously had a romantic relationship with Anderson. Reeves argued to the jury that Anderson’s jealousy of Perez’s new relationship led him to shoot Gordon-Brown.

“He did everything in his power” Reeves said, “except Erick wouldn’t die.”

Trevor Anderson is on trial for second degree possession of a weapon, in addition to second degree attempted murder.

More Stories on The Brooklyn Ink:

Brooklyn Political Dynasty on Trial

Valenko Trial Delayed But Verdict Nears

Court Considers Evidence in 16-Year-Old Double Murder Case

Police search for suspect involved in the shooting of a police car. Photo by Michael Wilner

Article corrected on 11/7/2011.

Over fifty police officers from the 73rd and 81st precincts, a canine team and at least one NYPD helicopter are searching for a man who shot numerous rounds from a black Mercedes Benz around 1:00 pm today.

The suspect abandoned the car in Glenmore Plaza in Brownsville after he fled the scene of the crime on Ralph Ave. and Macon Street, police say.

The car was left just two blocks away from the location where Zurana Horton was killed less than two weeks ago, protecting school children from gang gunfire.

The target of the shooting is unclear, but police say they believe the perpetrator may have been shooting at a fellow off-duty security officer during a car chase from Bedford-Stuyvesant.

The suspect was accompanied by two people in the back of the car, police say.

Kamenev was arrested Tuesday, Oct. 25 and charged with the murder of Alla Kamenev. Bernard Udell, Kamenev’s defense attorney, said his client denies the charges.

Alla Kamenev was shot dead by a man riding a child’s bicycle at 11:50 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20 at the corner of West Second Street and Seabreeze Avenue in Coney Island. She died on route to Coney Island Hospital.

On Thursday, police said that Dimitry shot Alla multiple times and rode off on a girl’s bicycle. Alla was later sent to Coney Island Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police still do not know the gunman’s motive.

Stay tuned for further updates.

On Thursday, a 65-year-old woman was shot dead in Coney Island, in broad daylight, according to Gothamist. Police are looking for the suspect, who apparently rides a pink girls’ bike, according the New York Daily News.

Early Sunday morning more than 100 firefighters were called to a two-alarm fire in a Brooklyn synagogue, according to NBC New York.

In some better news from the borough, a 12-year old Brooklyn, boy who had gone missing over the weekend from his family’s upstate home, was found on Sunday, according to CBS.

In light of Obama’s recent announcement that all U.S. troops will withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year, we are wondering how this war has affected Brooklyn.  We have reaching out to those families affected by the war.

What stories should the Brooklyn Ink be covering? Let us know at TheBrooklynInk@gmail.com

An anti-gun violence group marched in Crown Heights Neha Banka/ The Brooklyn Ink

Residents of Crown Heights walked together on Thursday evening in a peace march to end gun violence, but also to call attention to increased safety in the neighborhood in recent years.

Approximately 70 marchers congregated on the north side of Eastern Parkway and Utica Avenue at 6:00pm. With many young participants carrying posters that said “DON’T SHOOT. I want to grow up,” the march proceeded along Eastern Parkway and concluded with a ceremony in Brower Park.

According to the Crown Heights Mediation Center, which had organized the march, gun violence has been on the decline in the neighborhood in recent years. Project director Amy Ellenbogen said there have been only nine shootings so far this year in the jurisdiction of the 77th Precinct, compared with 10 last years.  “But it is still nine too many,” she said.

“Over the past 10 years, there has been a 16.7 percent decrease of victims and a 28.6 percent decrease of shooting incidents”, Ellenbogen said. The number of fatalities due to gun violence according to Ellenbogen in the 9 incidents this year and 20 last year totaled 5.

“Gun violence has been at a historic low at the 77th precinct this year,” said Executive Officer Michael Marino, a police representative at the event. “New residents coming into to community should be more aware of the situations”, explained Marino.

Source: Rheanna Abbot/ Save Our Streets

Danny Dickson, a 41 year old resident of Crown Heights and a shooting victim who uses a wheelchair, said, “I’m trying to save our streets. Trying to talk to the young youth.”  Of his own wounding, he says, “I got shot. I’ve been in the (wheel)chair for 17 years. It didn’t kill me but made me stronger,” he said.  He said the dispute that led to the shooting began “over words”. “It didn’t have to go that far, but it did”, said Dickson.

Ryan Emanuel, a 12 year old resident, said he was in the march “for the safety of the streets and to make peace.” He said a 40 year old man who lived in his building got shot four times in the head on Christmas Eve two years ago.

Bishop Roberto Jemmot, of Nazareth Christian Fellowship, said, “We’re influencing young people in our church. We’re trying to mold their lives and teach them nonviolence, which is the principle of Christ.”

Borough President Marty Markowitz was also present at the event.  “A few anti-social deviants should not bring a lack of calm and respect to the neighborhood,” he said. “There is no question that there has been an increase in gun violence in New York City over the past year or two”, Markowitz said. “Part of it is because of the increase in unemployment rates. Part of it is easy availability of purchasing of guns. In some neighborhoods it is easier to buy guns than books in Brooklyn and New York City and that’s sad.”

Residents at the march want to see positive changes in their neighborhood and many hope that Thursday’s event will help spread the message. The purpose of the event according to the S.O.S team and representatives of the 77th precinct was spreading awareness about reducing numbers in neighborhood shootings, as well as awareness about streets in Crown Heights becoming safer for its residents.

Other speakers at the event included City Council Member Letitia James and State Senator Eric Adams. There was a strong presence of members of the S.O.S. (Save Our Streets) Outreach Team, whose antiviolence methods focus on making personal contact with at-risk young people.

Many marchers carried S.O.S. posters and the S.O.S. volunteers also distributed plastic badges reading “I SUPPORT S.O.S.”, for participants to pin onto their clothes. One resident waved a placard he had made himself which read, “In violence we forget who we are!!”

]]> http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/10/22/32649-crown-heights-march-to-end-gun-violence/feed/ 1 http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/09/06/28284-crown-heights-shooting/ http://thebrooklynink.com/2011/09/06/28284-crown-heights-shooting/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:15:05 +0000 Brooklyn Ink Staff http://thebrooklynink.com/?p=28284 Dispatches from Crown Heights the day after the West Indian Day Parade, where three people were fatally shot and two New York City police officers were wounded.