A Bedford-Stuyvesant man will spend the next 21 years in prison for fatally gunning another guy down in Crown Heights.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Ingram sentenced Andre Rodriguez, 31, to 21 years to life behind bars after a jury found him guilty last month of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, who said his office will continue to crackdown on perpetrators of savage shootings.
“Such brazen shootings will not be tolerated in Brooklyn,” the top prosecutor said on Thursday. “We are committed to ending gun violence in our communities and will continue to hold accountable those who put others in harm’s way.
Prosecutors alleged that Rodriguez followed 46-year-old Kieth Vereen to an Atlantic Avenue gas station near Utica Avenue on June 17, 2017, when he pressed a gun to the victim’s chest and blew him away.
Following the incident, investigators recovered surveillance footage that showed the defendant approach the victim and point a gun at him, along with a cellphone Rodriguez dropped at the crime scene, which contained his DNA, Gonzalez said.
A spokesman for the district attorney could not immediately comment on why Rodriguez shot Vereen, but noted that prosecutors did not need to prove motive to secure his conviction.
