Arrests Expected Soon In Fatal Shooting Outside Flatbush Avenue Church & More Notes From The 70th Precinct Community Council Meeting

There still have been no arrests made in the shooting outside a Flatbush Avenue church that left two men dead and four others injured Monday night, but Deputy Inspector Richard DiBlasio, commanding officer of the 70th Precinct, said he expects “several people” to be caught in the near future.

“There are a lot of detectives assigned to it — we’re trying to put the pieces together,” DiBlasio said at last night’s 70th Precinct Community Council meeting. “Hopefully we’ll get the whole story… We are aggressively investigating this. Hopefully in the near future we’ll end up with several people arrested for this.”

According to police, numerous gunshots were fired into the crowd of hundreds of people who had just left a wake for Jose Robles, a 38-year-old man who died of a heart attack in mid-April, a little before 8:30pm Monday evening.

Sharieff Clayton, 40, of the Bronx; and Ronald Murphy, 44, of East New York, were pronounced dead after being transported to Kings County Hospital, the NYPD said. Clayton, who was a writer, had sustained a gunshot wound to the abdomen, and Murphy was shot in the chest, according to police.

The others who have been hospitalized are listed in stable condition, including a 40-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the left hand, a 38-year-old woman who was shot int the left leg, a 29-year-old woman who sustained a gunshot wound to the left leg, and a 40-year-old man who was shot in the torso, the NYPD said.

According to witnesses and elected officials, the shooting was over a homicide that had occurred about 20 years ago, though police said they could not confirm or deny this report. Police are investigating whether or not it is gang related, but, so far, there is no evidence that it is, DiBlasio said.

“I can’t even explain what they were thinking, especially at a church where someone’s wake is,” DiBlasio said.

“It was a horrible, tragic situation that happened,” the commanding officer continued.

Following the shooting, DiBlasio said police immediately worked with community leaders and Robles’ family to ensure the funeral could happen on Tuesday as planned.

“Our number one goal was to have the services for the funeral,” he said. “The family was so grateful — they didn’t think they were going to be able to pull that off, but we did it, and the family put their family member at their final resting place.”

Other highlights from Wednesday’s community council meeting include:

• Officer Dalmin Vasquez was honored as the council’s Cop of the Month for his work in arresting two men involved in forcing a woman to be a prostitute in a house on Marlborough Road. DiBlasio said that on March 29, the officer and other police responded to a 911 about a firearm at a Marlborough home. When Vasquez entered the home, he “started noticing there were all indications that the person who called needed assistance and that some type of prostitution was going on,” DiBlasio said. “… There was a man in the apartment, and the officer sees how nervous she is and separates her from him. He ends up finding out that the male individual in the apartment was forcing her to perform sex and was her pimp, so to speak.” That man, and another individual who began sending her threatening texts over this incident, were both arrested and are currently behind bars, the commanding officer said.

• Dr. Farhat Shireen and Zafar Temuri, who live on Turner Place in Prospect Park South, told DiBlasio at the meeting that they were frustrated with the police’s response to a burglary that happened during broad daylight at their apartment earlier this month. The couple said more than $25,000 worth of items were stolen from their home, including MacBooks, jewelry and smartphones — and the criminal, or criminals, stole items located just next to the couple’s teenage daughter, who was sleeping at the time. “My daughter is still having issues sleeping at night,” Temuri said at the meeting. After reporting the crime, the neighbors said police did not reach out to them for weeks — something which DiBlasio said was inaccurate and that an officer had come not long after the burglary to perform a crime prevention survey. “I’ll give you with 100 percent certainty that the case is being pursued,” DiBlasio said.

• Juan de la Cruz, who owns the McDonald’s at Parkside and Ocean Avenues, thanked police for sending an officer to his restaurant after he reported at last month’s precinct meeting that he was facing numerous problems with individuals coming into the fast food joint and refusing to leave when they didn’t buy anything. “After a week of having that beat cop coming, it was amazing the change. At this time, we do not have a problem — that eliminated the problem entirely,” de la Cruz said. Neighbors have been concerned about the lack of beat officers in the neighborhood (though DiBlasio noted that it was not a beat officer, but an impact officer sent to the McDonald’s), saying the continued presence of a specific officer — something which business owners have said happened more frequently in the past — does far more good than the more sporadic visits from police that some say happens now. “With the beat officers — they’re there,” DiBlasio said. “We have to readjust our resources based on the crime going on in the precinct. Certain officers are strategically placed — they’re not gone… Just because someone gets redeployed to another area doesn’t mean they’re gone.”

• Community leaders, including DiBlasio and Community Board 14 District Manager Shawn Campbell, reported that CB 14’s annual youth conference held yesterday, Apri 29, at Brooklyn College was a resounding success, with more people attending the event that helps teens connect with jobs, internships, colleges, and more than ever before.

• Community Council President Ed Powell and DiBlasio noted the great turnout at this past Sunday’s Church Avenue Street Fair, which drew about 8,500 people to our neighborhood — a couple thousand more than last year.

• Community affairs officers urged residents to look carefully at ATMs before using their cards in an effort to see whether there could be a skimming device at the machine. If you notice wires hanging from the machine, or anything else that appears unusual, the officers asked that you please go into the bank to let them know. Additionally, the officers asked neighbors to place their hand over the ATM’s key pad while typing in a pin number, in the case that criminals have installed a camera on the device.

• DiBlasio, once again, asked residents to not leave anything in their cars, such as wallets or credit cards. “There’s somebody going around taking radios in cars — I feel like I’m back in the 1970s again, and while they’re in there taking a radio, they find a bank card,” the commanding officer said.

• Crime has dropped by 17 percent, compared to last year, DiBlasio reported. “That’s not just the hard work of the men and women of the 70th Precinct, but of the auxiliary officers and the explorers,” he said.

• There will be a May Day march on Saturday, May 2, beginning at Flatbush and Hillel at 11am. It will proceed to Parkside Avenue. For any questions about the march, contact the precinct’s Community Affairs unit at 718-851-5557.

• DiBlasio said neighbors will be able to try a firearm simulator at the next meeting. “It’s a role playing of situations that police officers throughout the nation address on a daily basis,” the deputy inspector said. “It puts you in our position.”

• Jacob Gold from Councilman Jumaane Williams’ office announced there will be a housing rights town hall meeting for tenants and small business owners who have had trouble with their landlords on Friday, May 1 from 6-8:30pm at the Cortelyou Road Church of God (1085 Flatbush Avenue, by Cortelyou Road).

The next meeting of the 70th Precinct Community Council will be held Wednesday, May 27 at 7:30pm at 175 Lawrence Avenue.