In the spring of 2015, a life that had been dedicated to steering young people away from the very violence that had once defined it was tragically cut short. Sharieff Clayton, a 40-year-old man from Brooklyn, New York, was shot and killed on April 27, 2015, while attending a funeral service at the Emmanuel Church of God in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The shooting, which also claimed the life of 44-year-old Ronald Murphy and left four others wounded, was the culmination of a feud that had simmered for two decades.
Clayton himself was no stranger to the street life that ultimately claimed him. He had a history of gang involvement and had served a 15-year prison sentence for manslaughter and robbery. However, upon his release in 2007, he had dedicated his life to preventing others from making the same mistakes. He worked as a Program Coordinator for the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services where he was an advocate for gang prevention and a mentor to at-risk youth. He had even penned a novel, 'Honor Amongst Thieves,' which detailed his own experiences and the path that led him to prison. At the time of his death, he was working on a sequel.
The tragic irony of his death was not lost on those who knew him. He was at the funeral of a friend when a confrontation erupted. An argument between Clayton and another man, later identified as Fritz Celestine, escalated with deadly speed. Celestine, along with accomplices, opened fire into the crowd of mourners. In the ensuing chaos, Clayton was struck in the abdomen and was later pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital Center.
The investigation that followed a violent end to a life that had been so purposefully redirected. Authorities identified Fritz Celestine as one of the shooters. In November 2018, Celestine was convicted on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. He was subsequently sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. Another man, Pierre Celestine, was also implicated in the shooting and was reported to be awaiting trial. The brazen violence outside a place of mourning served as a stark reminder of the cycles of violence that Sharieff Clayton had worked so hard to break.
