In the early moments of a May morning in 2021, the life of 33-year-old Kayorn Wilson, a male resident of Queens, NY, was tragically cut short. Just after midnight on May 10th, Wilson was seated in the front passenger seat of a car at the corner of 12th Street and 40th Avenue in Long Island City when two men approached the vehicle and opened fire. The brazen attack left Wilson with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest.
The female driver of the car, who was unharmed, sped away from the scene and managed to flag down police officers a few blocks away. Emergency responders rushed Wilson to a nearby hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced dead.
The investigation into the homicide led to the identification of two suspects. The first, Darrius Saunders, a 27-year-old from the Bronx, was apprehended on June 1, 2021. He was subsequently charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. A month later, a second suspect, Khalik Berry, was arrested in Virginia and extradited back to Queens to face charges in connection with Wilson's death. Both men were indicted on charges of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
The legal proceedings against the two men moved forward, and in February 2025, Khalik Berry was convicted by a jury of murder in the second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. The trial revealed that Berry had approached the vehicle with another man and fired seven shots at Wilson, striking him in the back, abdomen, and arms. For his role in the murder, Berry was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The case against his co-defendant, Darrius Saunders, was still listed as being in the conference phase in early 2025, with no final disposition publicly available.
