Deadly barbecue in New York: young father shot while defending woman at block party

A neighborhood barbecue ended in tragedy when Dyseem Jackson, a 21-year-old father, was shot dead while allegedly defending a woman in Brooklyn (NYC).

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny this week offered details about the apparent motive for the July 12 confrontation outside the Albany Houses public housing complex in Crown Heights, when the gunman repeatedly shot Jackson in the head, neck and chest.

The victim was hanging around outside when accused gunman Usamah Sidberry (37) started having a barbecue after midnight, Kenny said. “A woman comes up and says she wants to have a barbecue too (…) They start arguing (…) and at some point [Sidberry] “He touches her inappropriately.”

The woman slapped Sidberry, leading to a tense standoff. That’s when Jackson stepped in to defend her, she said. Daily News.

Jackson’s action angered Sidberry, who asked the victim “why he was worried” before running into his apartment at Albany Houses to get a gray Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun, prosecutors said. Both men had police records, but it’s unclear if they knew each other.

Jackson asked Sidberry to go with him to the lobby of a building in the complex on Bergen St., where he was shot. About 20 to 25 people saw the crime, said Kenny, who reviewed surveillance video showing the exchange after Sidberry returned with his gun.[Jackson] tries to get away from the perpetrator. As he does so, the offender walks up behind him and shoots him.”

Everyone involved in the fight was drunk, Kenny said. Sidberry fled the scene but was caught by police within an hour. He was charged with murder and held without bail.

After being shown surveillance video of Jackson’s shooting, Sidberry admitted to police that he was responsible, prosecutors said in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Saturday.

Sidberry has two prior felony convictions and three more for misdemeanors, prosecutors said. He was arrested in 2008 for involuntary manslaughter after he and another suspect beat a man to death at the Albany Houses the year before, according to police. He ultimately served about three years in prison after being convicted of assault.

Jackson, the father of a 3-year-old girl, was a member of a gang centered around the Albany Houses, where he lived, according to police. He had been arrested five times, most recently for robbery in 2022. His mother said he was always willing to help people who were being bullied.

All charges are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Young people are protagonists in New York’s gun violence as both victims and perpetrators, with shootings and knife attacks in streets, homes, schools, public transportation and businesses. In many cases, people are hit by stray bullets in the midst of territorial clashes between gangs.