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Boerum Hill drug dealer sentenced to 35 years for fatally shooting man during fistfight

Bloods Gang Member Shot Unarmed Victim Who was Crawling Away

March 8, 2017 From Brooklyn DA's Office
Anthony Reyes, 29. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn DA’s Office
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Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez on Tuesday 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.
 
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 DA identified the defendant as Anthony Reyes of Boerum Hill. He was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Suzanne Mondo to 35 years in prison.  He was convicted on Feb. 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.
 
Gonzalez 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 Ave. in Bushwick. Reyes fired a .380-caliber firearm at an unarmed Allen Wilson Jr., 24; the first shot missed but Reyes fired again, striking Wilson in the torso as he was crawling on the ground, trying to escape. The evidence showed that the bullet entered Wilson’s chest and pierced his heart. Reyes 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 Reyes’ behalf, according to testimony. Reyes received a phone call about the dispute immediately before arriving at the courtyard armed with his gun. Before the fight began, Reyes threatened to shoot Wilson if the victim hit the person he was arguing with, the evidence showed.
 
Reyes fled to the Dominican Republic in the days after the homicide and was apprehended in August 2014 while re-entering the U.S. 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; 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.

—Information from the Brooklyn DA’s Office


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