Man convicted in deadly Belmont Avenue shooting case
BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn man who opened fire outside a Brownsville bodega in broad daylight, killing a 33-year-old man after an earlier dispute, has been sentenced to more than two decades in prison, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said 48-year-old Waajid Pierce was sentenced to 22 years in prison followed by five years of post-release supervision for the fatal shooting of Daishawn Benjamin.
Pierce previously pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on February 27.
According to prosecutors, the deadly shooting happened on October 27, 2021, around 8:30 a.m. near the corner of Belmont Avenue and Mother Gaston Boulevard in Brownsville.
Investigators said Pierce approached a group of three men standing outside a bodega before pulling out a handgun and firing three shots at Benjamin.
The victim was struck in the torso, arm and hand.
Authorities said Pierce fled the scene in an Infiniti G35 sedan immediately after the shooting.
Benjamin later died from his injuries.
Prosecutors said surveillance footage and additional evidence helped investigators identify Pierce as the gunman.
Pierce was arrested on March 2, 2022, after returning to New York on a flight from Tampa, Florida to MacArthur Airport on Long Island.
District Attorney Gonzalez noted the devastating impact the killing had on the victim’s family.
Benjamin’s brother, Kizer Williams, had also been killed in a separate shooting just three weeks earlier only blocks away from where Benjamin was fatally shot. That homicide remains unsolved.
“No sentence can undo that unimaginable pain, but today’s prison term holds this defendant accountable for so callously taking a life,” Gonzalez said in a statement.
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Key Points
• Brooklyn man sentenced to 22 years in deadly Brownsville shooting
• Victim shot outside neighborhood bodega after dispute
• Prosecutors say victim’s brother was also killed weeks earlier