Police: Decades-old dispute led to deadly shooting outside Brooklyn funeral

WABC
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
New details in shooting outside Brooklyn church
Sandra Bookman reports police now believe a decades-old dispute led to a fatal shooting outside a Flatbush church.

EAST FLATBUSH, N.Y. (WABC) -- The shooting that left two dead and four injured outside a Brooklyn church Monday night stemmed from a decades-old dispute between two of the shot men, police said Tuesday.



Authorities say Sharieff Clayton, who was killed, and Fritz Celestin, who was shot and remains hospitalized, had a longstanding dispute dating back to the 1990s. They reportedly ran into each other inside the funeral service for 38-year-old Jose Luis Robles at Emmanuel Church of God on Flatbush Avenue, and the bad blood quickly resurfaced, and at least one was heard warning friends that something was "about to go down."



Celestin left the church, but allegedly returned as the service ended in an SUV with two other men. Detectives say the group of three men got out of the SUV and one opened fire on mourners outside the church, prompting one of them to return fire.



Clayton, 40, believed to be the target of the gunfire, was fatally shot. Also killed was 44-year-old Ronald Murphy, who was shot while protecting his wife from the gunfire.


He apparently jumped onto her and pushed her to the ground to shield her from the gunfire.



The 38-year-old wife was also struck by gunfire, but sustained a non life threatening injury.



"This is at a funeral, and unfortunately, guns are blaring in our community it's sad," community activist Tony Herbert said. "And the unfortunate part about it is that people need to understand, these young people need to understand that you can't just pull out a gun and start shooting, it's just unheard of, it's just stupidity."



Celestin was found bleeding in an SUV parked blocks away. He was struck three times and is hospitalized at Kings County Hospital.



"If we can prevent retaliatory shootings from this particular shooting, we will have something positive to talk about," New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams said. "And my hope is that the law enforcement will be able to do their job and hold the shooters accountable. This is just a reckless, reckless abandon of life to just start shooting up at a funeral like this, and it's something that we have to address."



The two others who where shot were believed to be innocent bystanders. A 29-year-old woman struck in the leg, while a 40-year-old man struck in the hand.



So far, police recovered 28 used .09-mm shell casings and four live that were at the scene.



Clayton was a childhood friend of Robles, and although Robles has a criminal history himself, he is not believed to have been directly connected to this incident.



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