Before dawn on July 15, 2016, a burst of gunfire tore through Osborn Street in Brownsville, Brooklyn, drawing police to the area outside 101 Osborn St. When officers arrived, they found two men wounded from the shooting and rushed them to the hospital, but both were pronounced dead. One of them was Perry Chance, 40, an African American man from Brooklyn.
Investigators later pieced together a chain of moments that began earlier that night near the Howard Houses, where an argument flared between Tariq Hargrove and another man, Jeffrey James. Chance, who knew both men, tried to step in and cool things down; the dispute broke apart, and the three men separated. But the tension lingered. A few hours later, at about 4:03 a.m., Chance was walking with his wife when they encountered James again on Osborn Street, and the earlier conflict reignited in sharp words. From nearby Pitkin Avenue, Hargrove approached and opened fire, discharging six shots—striking James five times and Chance once—before fleeing the scene. Chance was later described as a father of four.
In the first blur of the investigation, police framed the scene as an early-morning ambush: two men standing outside 101 Osborn St., a gunman approaching, and shots cracking in the darkness. Early public descriptions of the suspected gunman circulated as the search began, including a report that investigators were looking for someone believed to be a teen, last seen in a white T-shirt. Tip lines were opened as detectives tried to turn neighborhood fragments—who had been seen, who had argued, who had run—into something solid enough to name a shooter.
Within weeks, the case tightened around Tariq Hargrove. Police announced that a 20-year-old man had been arrested in connection with the double killing and charged with first- and second-degree murder as well as criminal possession of a weapon. Prosecutors said three eyewitnesses who knew Hargrove identified him as the shooter, and the investigation culminated in his arrest in Harlem on August 22, 2016.
The courtroom chapter arrived years later. On August 5, 2019, Hargrove pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, and on September 5, 2019, a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge sentenced him to 25 years to life in prison. While the legal system worked its slow arc from street corner to sentencing, the family’s grief moved on a different clock: a viewing and service were held on July 21, 2016, at Mount Ollie Baptist Church in Brooklyn, followed by interment at Evergreens Cemetery.
