A gang member is facing decades behind bars for shooting an innocent teen walking home from playing basketball in Brooklyn nearly six years ago, according to prosecutors.
Zidon Clarke, 23 and from Flatbush, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison on the charge of first-degree manslaughter and an indeterminate term of seven to 21 years in prison on the charge of conspiracy to commit murder in the February 2017 shooting death of teenager Rohan Levy, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Clarke was convicted on Nov. 21 of first-degree manslaughter, conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree attempted assault, fourth-degree conspiracy, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, criminal use of a firearm, and first-degree reckless endangerment.
According to Gonzalez, citing evidence, on Feb. 20, 2017, at around 2:20 p.m., on 55 Street near Lenox Road in East Flatbush, Clarke, a member of the "SRK" subset of the Folk Nation gang, was looking for rival gang members to shoot when he came across Levy and three of the teen's friends in East Flatbush. Levy, a student at Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design, was returning home after playing basketball.
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According to the evidence, Gonzalez said, Clarke got out of the passenger seat of a Honda Accord and fired five shots from a .380 caliber handgun, striking Levy in the back of the head and another teen, 18, in the leg. Levy died three days later at Kings County Hospital.
“This defendant took the life of an innocent teen in a cold-blooded act of gun violence that left a family forever traumatized. We will not allow this type of gang activity on the streets of Brooklyn. Today’s sentence ensures that the defendant is no longer a danger to our community," Gonzalez said.
