FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Boerum Hill Drug Dealer Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison for
Fatally Shooting Man during Fistfight, Wounding another
Bloods Gang Member Shot Unarmed Victim who was Crawling Away
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 29-year-old gang member was sentenced to 35 years in state prison for shooting an unarmed man to death and wounding another man during a 2009 fistfight that erupted over marijuana sales in a Bushwick courtyard.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant brought a gun to a fistfight and callously shot to death a man who was trying to save his own life by crawling away. Today’s sentence protects the public from a clearly dangerous individual who quickly resorted to lethal force to settle a senseless dispute.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Anthony Reyes, 29, of Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Mondo to 35 years in prison. He was convicted on February 3, 2017 of first-degree manslaughter, first-degree attempted assault, second-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon following a jury trial.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on May 17, 2009, at about 8 p.m., a fistfight broke out in the courtyard of 1454 Greene Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The defendant fired a .380-caliber firearm at an unarmed Allen Wilson, Jr., 24; the first shot missed but the defendant fired again, striking Wilson in the torso as he was crawling on the ground, trying to escape. The evidence showed that the bullet entered Mr. Wilson’s chest and pierced his heart. The defendant also shot and wounded an unarmed Darryl Rembert, then 23.
The fistfight followed an earlier dispute between Wilson’s brother and two teenagers who were selling marijuana at the location on the defendant’s behalf, according to testimony. The defendant received a phone call about the dispute immediately before arriving at the courtyard armed with his gun. Before the fight began, the defendant threatened to shoot Wilson if the victim hit the person he was arguing with, the evidence showed.
The defendant fled to the Dominican Republic in the days after the homicide and was apprehended in August 2014 while re-entering the United States. He subsequently confessed to the shooting, describing himself as a member of the Bloods street gang who was involved in the drug trade.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Patrick O’Connor, Deputy Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Katie Lee Wright, also of the Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Nicole Chavis, Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney William E. Schaeffer, Chief of Investigations, and Assistant District Attorney Patricia McNeill, Deputy Chief.
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