NEW YORK – A gang member faces decades in prison for shooting an innocent teenager walking home after playing basketball in Brooklyn nearly six years ago, prosecutors say.
Zidon Clarke, 23, of Flatbush, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison on first-degree manslaughter charges and an indeterminate term of seven to 21 years in prison on conspiracy to commit murder in connection with to the February 2017 shooting of teenager Rohan Levy, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Clarke was convicted Nov. 21 of manslaughter in the first degree, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted assault in the first degree, conspiracy in the fourth degree, felony possession of a weapon in the second degree, felony use of a firearm and endangerment inconsiderate. . .
According to González, citing evidence, on February 20, 2017, at approximately 2:20 p.m., on 55th Street near Lenox Road in East Flatbush, Clarke, a member of the Folk Nation gang’s subgroup “SRK,” was looking for a rival gang to shoot when he ran into Levy and three teenager friends in East Flatbush. Levy, a student at Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, was walking home after playing basketball.
According to evidence, Gonzalez said, Clarke climbed out of the passenger seat of a Honda Accord and fired five shots from a .380 caliber pistol, hitting Levy in the back of the head and another 18-year-old in the leg. Levy died three days later in Kings County Hospital.
“This defendant killed an innocent teenager in a cold-blooded act of gun violence that has left a family forever traumatized. We will not allow this type of group activity on the streets of Brooklyn. Today’s ruling ensures that the defendant is no longer a danger to our community,” González said.
