Bushwick man sentenced to 25 years in prison for Bed-Stuy shooting

BED-STUY – Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Thursday that 26-year-old Bushwick resident Darrien Weekes was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the fatal shooting of Malik Russell in 2019.29, during an altercation on a residential street in Bed-Stuy. Weekes pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. According to the evidence, Russell was alone in the early morning of June 1, 2019, when he met Weekes and an acquaintance on Chauncey Street, initially shaking hands and starting a conversation with the two. The prosecutor said while the three men were talking, the defendant suddenly pulled out a gun and shot the victim three times, hitting him once, before snatching the victim's hat and leaving it on the sidewalk.

The shooting itself was captured on video surveillance, while the defendant was also filmed approaching and leaving the scene. The acquaintance, Oliver Kinard, 27, pleaded guilty to third-degree obstruction of justice and was sentenced to a conditional discharge.

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