‘No One’s Going To Talk; It’s a Bushwick Thing’
By Meghan Berry
And Michele Hoos
Special to Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BUSHWICK — A Bushwick man known as “Joey Crack” took his 2007 Land Rover to a local car wash every day, a local shopkeeper said. This routine proved fatal when a Long Island man shot and killed the 27-year-old at the garage last Wednesday evening.
Dandre Yelverton, 19, of Hemstead, admitted to police that he shot Joseph Vargas and his brother, John Cruz, from whom he had planned to “forcibly remove property,” according to a statement filed by Detective Joseph R. Tallarine of the 83rd Precinct.
Vargas was shot in the chest at approximately 6:20 p.m. and pronounced dead at the scene. His last known address was 353 Stockholm St. in Bushwick.
Cruz, shot in the chest and buttocks, was brought to Brookdale University Hospital in Brooklyn. Yesterday, a hospital official said Cruz had been discharged.
Yelverton has been charged with second-degree murder. Jaquan Petty, 20, also of Hemstead, who drove Yelverton’s car, was charged with criminal facilitation.
“I heard a shot,” said a garage employee who was working the night of the shootings, “but I didn’t see anything.”
A car wash customer who would not give his name added, “No one’s going to talk. It’s Bushwick.”
Ralphy, the owner of Ralphy’s Towing Inc., next door to the car wash, would not give his last name and was not present for the June 20 shootings. But he said he had heard from witnesses that the Long Island men followed the Bushwick brothers to the garage.
Police officers were within earshot of the shooting, writing tickets down the street, said Ralphy, who was called to the scene by an employee.
After he was shot, Vargas ran behind the garage, where he was found dead by police, Ralphy said.
Police recovered a .45 caliber handgun at the scene.
“I guess a lot of young people are quick to go to the gun,” Ralphy said, adding that friends of Vargas have spent nights drinking at a garage-side memorial since last Thursday.
The memorial of Catholic vigil candles, bottles of Hennessy and chicken parmigiana commemorated the life of Vargas, a husband, father of two girls and a construction worker.
“He was a good dad, a good brother and loved by many,” said his older sister, who did not give her name. “Everyone who knew him said he was a good guy.”
In front of a second memorial at Stockholm Street and Irving Avenue, a man known as “Chill Will” said he and Vargas were good friends who used to play spades and dominoes on the block where the memorial now stands.
Like many others in the neighborhood who did not want to speak about Vargas, Will said silence is a form of protection in the neighborhood.
“It’s a Bushwick thing,” he said.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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