Johanci Chapman, 25, a Black man, was behind the wheel of a dollar van in East Flatbush on Sunday afternoon, January 12, 2025, when a routine day on Utica Avenue turned deadly. Near 837 Utica Ave., just before 1 p.m., police say another van pulled alongside and a shot tore into the driver’s side, striking Chapman in the arm. In the chaos that followed, his van lurched and collided with a nearby car, leaving the street abruptly sealed off as officers closed in on the scene.
First responders found Chapman wounded at the curbside stretch of Utica Avenue, and paramedics rushed him to NYC Health and Hospitals/Kings County. Despite the scramble to save him, he died from his injuries shortly afterward. Investigators worked the daylight crime scene around the damaged passenger van, focusing on what the bullet had pierced and what it had left behind—evidence in and around the vehicle, and the trail of movements that began at the moment the vans drew even.
Early accounts from police sources framed the shooting as the violent peak of a dispute between dollar van drivers—an argument that flared on the street and, according to investigators, may have been rooted in longstanding friction. The shooter, believed to have been operating another similar van, fled immediately after the gunfire, with reports placing the escape route toward Snyder Avenue. The motive was not publicly pinned down in the initial coverage, but the setting—an informal transit system where drivers compete for riders—hung over the case, as neighbors and riders spoke of how quickly everyday tension can turn dangerous when livelihoods are on the line.
Weeks later, on February 5, 2025, the NYPD made its search more visible by releasing surveillance images tied to the killing and asking the public to help identify the person sought. The suspect was described in public reporting as last seen wearing a black beanie, black sweater, blue sweatpants, and black boots. At the time those images and descriptions were circulated, police said no arrests had been made and the investigation remained ongoing, with detectives still working to trace the suspect’s movements and connect the confrontation on Utica Avenue to the person captured in the images.
