Gang member shot and killed a teenager to take revenge on his brother: sentence in New York

Ralief Bradford, an ex-convict on parole, has now been sentenced to 25 years to life behind bars for shooting and killing an innocent 16-year-old because the teen’s older brother belonged to a rival gang in Brooklyn (NYC). ), according to the prosecution.

On July 15, 2018, Bradford shot Justin Richey in the heart one day after his 16th birthday after confronting him on a Cypress Hills street and falsely accusing him of gang membership, amid a dispute between “Bloods” and “ Crips.”

At the time, Bradford, also known by the name Zabar Beebe, was on probation for a pair of gun crimes, one of which ended with police shooting him in the back in 2013, he recalled. DailyNews.

Bradford (30), who a jury found guilty of murder and weapons possession in March, has now been sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Phyllis Chu.

“He was a teenager who lived in a gang-infested neighborhood and he murdered him on a public sidewalk, in broad daylight, in front of other people for no reason.”

Richey was helping a neighbor with household chores at Pine St. and Blake Ave. when Bradford and two accomplices, both still at large, confronted and surrounded him, prosecutors said.

Bradford is a member of the Front Side Bloods, a subset of Bloods active in the Cypress Hills Houses public housing complex (NYCHA). Richey’s older brother was a member of the Crips, but the teen had no gang ties, according to prosecutors. Instead, he was a helpful young man who for years volunteered at the Cypress Hills Community Center.

Bradford and his companions were looking for his brother, but decided on the young man. One of them strangled him and threw him to the ground, while another beat him with a metal baton, prosecutors said. Bradford then pulled out a gun and opened fire, hitting the teen in the chest and heart. Richey ran to save his life, but he collapsed half a block away.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Sarah Jafari called Bradford’s actions “absolutely despicable and senseless” in a May 8 sentencing letter. “The defendant killed Mr. Richey with wanton disregard for the immense [efecto] that his death would have on both Mr. Richey’s family and the community,” he wrote. “Richey was a teenager living in a gang-infested neighborhood and the defendant murdered him on a public sidewalk, in broad daylight, in front of other people for no discernible reason other than Richey’s older brother’s gang affiliation.” .

When he was 18, after being shot in a confrontation with NYPD, Bradford ended up being sentenced to between 16 months and four years in prison as a youthful offender in 2013. But the police linked him to a previous shooting, with the same gun that was pointed at the agents, as part of a gang dismantling investigation. That earned him a five-year prison sentence and he was released on parole in April 2017, just over a year before he killed Richey.