Cops probe tie to bust for assault
A YOUNG DAD was fatally shot on his way to pick up his 3-yearold daughter from his mother’s Brooklyn apartment early Saturday, officials and relatives said.
NYCHA employee Charles Byrd was blasted once in the chest in front of the Brevoort Houses on Bainbridge St. near Ralph Ave. in Bedford-Stuyvesant just before 1:30 a.m., police said. He was rushed to Interfaith Hospital but couldn’t be saved.
Byrd, 26, was just a few blocks from his mom’s house when he was shot.
“That was my only son,” his devastated mother Calendra Byrd told the Daily News, choking back tears. “It doesn’t make no sense. He doesn’t live here no more. He doesn’t hang around here no more.”
Investigators were looking for the gunman — and were trying to determine if the slaying had anything to do with an assault Byrd allegedly committed on July 2.
He and two accomplices were arrested for beating up a 33-year-old man on Flatbush and Sixth Aves. in Prospect Heights, police said.
Family and friends said Byrd was trying to turn his life around and focus on his girlfriend and their 3-year-old daughter Cameron.
The victim’s mother was baby-sitting little Cameron Friday night. Byrd was on his way to pick his child up when he was shot.
“When they shot him up his daughter was (with me),” Byrd’s mom said. “(He was) a tall, gentle giant. If you needed help, he would help you.”
Neighbor Kenny Patterson, 52, was watching TV in his second-floor apartment when he heard the gunshots.
“It was like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam!” said Patterson, who used to coach Byrd in basketball. “I looked out the window and I saw four guys running away quickly.
“Everyone knows each other around here,” Patterson added. “(Byrd) was a nice kid.”
Byrd’s cousin Taron Callahan, 18, was on his way to meet up with the young dad when he got a devastating phone call from a family friend.
“They said he was shot,” said Callahan, who rushed to Interfaith Hospital where Byrd lay dying. “Everybody was there — friends, family.
“Everybody was just in shock,” the cousin added. “When he was younger he was a hothead running the streets. But he turned around his life and changed it all around. He was quiet and calm these days.”
At the scene, at least one shell casing was found on the ground. Surveillance footage of the shooting was also recovered, police sources said.
Byrd was a groundskeeper for NYCHA, an agency spokeswoman said.
“We are saddened by the death of one of our employees and extend our deepest condolences to his family at this difficult time,” the spokeswoman said in a statement. “NYCHA is fully cooperating with the NYPD Housing Bureau as they investigate his death.”
There were no arrests in his killing.
About 30 minutes after the slaying, two cousins were shot in South Ozone Park, Queens, in an unrelated incident, police said.
A 35-year-old man was shot in the wrist and his 26-year-old cousin was shot in the hip on Linden Blvd. near 135th St., cops said.
Both men went to Jamaica Hospital by private means and were expected to survive, officials said. No arrests have been made.