In the summer of 2020, a domestic dispute in a Queens apartment escalated into a fatal shooting that claimed the life of 40-year-old Shaka Ifill. On the afternoon of July 26th, police responded to a 911 call from a residence on 91st Avenue in Woodhaven. Inside, they discovered Ifill with a gunshot wound to his back. Before succumbing to his injuries, Ifill managed to identify his assailant to the responding officers: his girlfriend's mother.
He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead later that day.
The investigation into the death of the Bronx native, who was a father to a newborn with his girlfriend, quickly centered on 55-year-old Suzette Olin. Evidence suggested a history of domestic turmoil, with police having responded to a domestic incident report filed by Ifill's girlfriend just three days prior to the shooting. On the day of the fatal encounter, Olin allegedly confronted Ifill in his apartment and shot him. Security footage captured a woman identified as Olin arriving at and leaving the vicinity of Ifill's home around the time of the shooting. Further investigation uncovered a cigarette butt in the apartment that was linked to Olin through DNA evidence.
Following an investigation, Suzette Olin was arrested on September 18, 2020, and charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Her case proceeded through the court system, and in March 2023, a jury convicted her of manslaughter in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. Subsequently, Olin, then 68, was sentenced to 23 years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision for the death of her grandchild's father.
