On the evening of April 18, 2018, a burst of gunfire shattered the relative quiet outside the Mt. Zion Pentecostal Holy Church on Hart Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. When the chaos subsided, 37-year-old Claudell Gary, a male resident of the neighborhood, was found lying on the ground, having been shot in the neck and leg. Emergency responders rushed him to Woodhull Hospital, but his injuries proved to be fatal, and he was pronounced deceased.
The shooting occurred just a block away from his own home.
The investigation into Gary's death revealed that it was not a random act of violence, but rather the culmination of a year-long feud between his family and a local street gang known as the Brick Squad. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, no arrests were made, but investigators were looking into potential cell phone footage of the incident. As the investigation progressed, authorities identified several members of the Brick Squad as being responsible for the murder.
In December 2019, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office announced a 48-count indictment against ten alleged members of the Brick Squad gang, charging them with a range of violent crimes, including the murder of Claudell Gary. The indictment alleged that Quazeer Farmer, Stephan Khadu, and Markel Pender acted in concert to shoot and kill Gary. The gang, a subset of the larger Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation, was said to be involved in drug trafficking and numerous acts of violence to assert their dominance in the area.
The legal proceedings that followed brought a measure of justice for Claudell Gary's death. Quazeer Farmer was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy and was subsequently sentenced to 30 and 2/3 years to life in prison. Markel Pender pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and received a sentence of 12 years in prison with five years of post-release supervision. These convictions were part of a larger takedown of the Brick Squad, with other members also facing lengthy prison sentences for their roles in the gang's criminal activities.
