In the summer of 2015, a burst of gunfire shattered the evening calm on a street in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, leaving a family heartbroken and a community calling for an end to violence. On the night of Thursday, August 13th, 21-year-old Isaiah Cicero was fatally shot in front of an apartment building on Saratoga Avenue. Two other young men, aged 18 and 20, were also wounded in the attack but survived their injuries.
First responders rushed Cicero to Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, but the wound to his torso proved fatal.
Investigators quickly determined the shooting was not a random act, believing it to be gang-related. This theory, however, was staunchly disputed by Cicero's grieving mother, who insisted her son was not involved in any gang activity. In the days following the shooting, she and Cicero's father, joined by community advocates, held a press conference at the spot where their son was killed. Overcome with emotion, his mother decried the 'coward' who took her son's life and made a desperate plea for the violence plaguing their neighborhood to stop.
Police released chilling surveillance footage that captured the harrowing moments of the attack. The video showed a masked individual holding a door open and firing a gun into the foyer of the building where the three men were. Despite the video evidence, the suspect's identity remained concealed behind the mask. A year after the tragic event, Isaiah Cicero's family continued their quest for justice, publicly appealing for anyone with information to come forward. They lamented that while the shooter was captured on camera, he had yet to be identified or apprehended, leaving a painful void and an unanswered question of who was responsible for the death of their son. As of the last reports, no arrests had been made in the case.
