FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Brooklyn Man Sentenced to up to 21 Years in Prison for
East Flatbush Shooting That Killed an Innocent Teen
Defendant Was Looking for Rival Gang Members When He Shot 15-year-old Victim
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a member of a violent Brooklyn street gang has been sentenced to up to 21 years in prison for a February 2017 shooting in East Flatbush that left one teenager dead and another injured. The defendant was looking for rival gang members to shoot when he came across the victim, an innocent bystander, and shot him.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant took the life of an innocent teen in a cold-blooded act of gun violence that left a family forever traumatized. We will not allow this type of gang activity on the streets of Brooklyn. Today’s sentence ensures that the defendant is no longer a danger to our community.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Zidon Clarke, 23, of, Flatbush, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to a determinate term of 20 years in prison on the charge of first-degree manslaughter and an indeterminate term of seven to 21 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit murder. The terms were ordered to run concurrently. The defendant was convicted of first-degree manslaughter, conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree attempted assault, fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal use of a firearm, and first-degree reckless endangerment on November 21, 2022, following a bench trial.
The District Attorney said that, according to the evidence, on February 20, 2017, at about 2:20 p.m., in front of 92 East 55 Street near Lenox Road in East Flatbush, the defendant, who is a member of the “SRK” subset of the Folk Nation street gang, was out hunting for rival gang members to shoot when he came across the victim, Rohan Levy, and three of the victim’s friends as they walked through East Flatbush. The victim, a student at Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, was returning home after playing basketball.
According to the evidence, the defendant got out of the passenger seat of a Honda Accord and fired five shots from a .380 caliber handgun, striking Levy in the back of the head and another teen, 18, in the leg. A fragment of the bullet shell entered Rohan’s brain. The teen died three days later at Kings County Hospital.
The defendant fled the scene in the Honda Accord. He was arrested on April 5, 2017, after the New York City Police Department released video showing him getting into the car.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Matthew Perry of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Alfred C. Deingeniis, Chief of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau.
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