Teen Killer of Elderly Bed-Stuy 'Legend' Gets 30 to Life

Breeze King, now 22, was just 17 when he killed elderly Bed-Stuy resident Andrew Burke. Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn DA’s Office

By CHRISTOPHER NEELY

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — Family and friends of the 79­-year­-old “neighborhood legend” and innocent bystander fatally shot during a 2011 gang shootout in Bed-Stuy saw justice served Friday, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.

Lexington Avenue resident Breeze King, 22, was handed a 30­-to­-life sentence Friday for second-­degree murder and second­-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

King was involved in a 2011 shootout, prosecutors said, that ended in the death of Andrew Burke, 79 — a bystander caught in crossfire between rival gang members.

Burke was popular around the neighborhood, according to the New York Daily News, and was known as a “neighborhood legend” and “archive” who “didn’t have a bad bone in his body.”

Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson said the King’s lengthy sentence should serve as a warning to gang members.

“[King] opened fire in the middle of a busy street in broad daylight, killing an innocent elderly man,” Thompson said. “We will not allow gang members to settle their scores by shooting guns in our streets. ... The long sentence [King] deservedly received shows our commitment to vigorously prosecute anyone who does.”

King was only 17 ­years­ old at the time of the shooting, and was affiliated with the Bloods gang, according to Charisma Troiano, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA’s Office.

On Sept. 28, 2011, at about 5:30 p.m., King came across two rival gang members on Marcus Garvey Boulevard, the DA said — and bullets started to fly.

One of King’s targets ran into Darryl’s Barbershop (also known as Fess Barbershop) at 358 Marcus Garvey Blvd., where Burke, a regular at the shop, had gone to get his haircut that day, the DA said. As Burke was standing outside, he was struck in the neck by a stray bullet — allegedly fired by King — and died.

Darryl Stallings, owner of the barbershop, could not be reached for comment.

According to a Patch story on the shootout, at least four bullets were fired in broad daylight. One hit Burke in the neck. Some witnesses ran up to try and help Burke as he lay in a pool of blood. Surveillance video showed them fleeing the scene.

“And he’s reaching up, trying to reach for me, and I can’t even help him. I can’t do nothing to help him,” one neighbor recounted in an interview with CBS. “He’s been in this neighborhood so long. He never bothered nobody. And now his family has to prepare for a funeral and everything. It’s not right,”

DA Thompson said he was able to convict King with the help of a witness who came forward “about a year after the incident,” as well as another witness who testified that King admitted his role in the murder to him when the two were jailed on Rikers Island.

King was sentenced on Friday by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Guy Mangano.