Two gunmen face life behind bars after a jury found them guilty of murder for slaying two young mothers amid a failed Bedford-Stuyvesant assassination attempt in 2017.
Bed-Stuy resident Anthony Alexander, 19, and Harlem dweller Nazir Saunders, 22, were each convicted of two counts of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Monday. They face up to 50 years to life in prison when they’re sentenced on June 10.
The gun-toting gangbangers waltzed into the courtyard of a Gates Avenue housing complex between Lewis and Stuyvesant avenues at 9:30 p.m. on July 12, 2017 and opened fire into a crowd of about 20 people barbecuing, in an attempt to slay rival gang members, according to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
The lowlifes missed their intended target, and instead struck Chynna Battle, the 21-year-old mother of a 3-year-old girl, in the head, and 29-year-old Shaqwanda Staley, who had a 9-year-old daughter, in the back, killing both women.
“Two innocent women, each of them a young mother, died when these defendants callously opened fire on a crowd that was peacefully gathered in a courtyard on a summer evening,” said Gonzalez. “The victims’ daughters will now grow up without the love and support of their mothers. We cannot allow gun violence like this to continue to wreak havoc on our communities.”
The scum fled to South Carolina following the murders, where they were arrested on Oct. 31, 2017.
