On a Saturday evening in Brooklyn, the life of 36-year-old Julio Yasser, a Black man from Canarsie, was cut short by gunfire. The incident occurred around 5:40 p.m. on September 19, 2015, in the Flatbush neighborhood. Yasser was on Church Avenue, near Ocean Avenue, when a gunman shot him in the torso. Emergency services rushed to the scene and transported him to Kings County Hospital, but his injuries proved fatal, and he was pronounced dead.
The shooting was part of a particularly
violent 21-hour period in New York City that resulted in seven deaths. In the aftermath of Yasser's death, his brother described him as a 'family-oriented man' who was the father of two sons. Family and friends gathered for a vigil at the site of the shooting, leaving behind candles, flowers, and Panamanian flags in his memory.
The New York Police Department launched an investigation into the homicide and released surveillance footage of a person of interest. The footage showed a well-dressed man, described as being around 25 years old and wearing a vest with matching slacks, running near the scene of the crime. At the time of the initial reports, no arrests had been made in connection with the shooting, and the circumstances that led to the fatal encounter were not immediately clear.
Information from the Brooklyn District Attorney's office revealed that Yasser had a previous encounter with the law. A year prior to his death, he had been arrested and charged with attempted murder and assault for allegedly shooting a 23-year-old man in the leg in Flatbush.
