Visit from college turns tragic
A 20-YEAR-OLD college student on summer break who dreamed of starting his own company was shot to death in a Brooklyn street fight, police said Wednesday.
Justin Hackley was blasted in the chest, neck and head during a brawl on Ocean Ave. near Church Ave. in Flatbush about 11:35 p.m. Tuesday.
“He was a firm believer of going to college — there was nothing else for him,” Hackley’s devastated mom, Marie Bernard, of Clinton Hill, told the Daily News. “Education is everything in this house. He was just a good and kind kid at the wrong place and time.”
Hackley had just completed summer school ahead of his senior year studying business administration at Delaware State University. He hoped to start his own T-shirt line, his mother said.
One of Hackley’s friends, Montel Brown, 24, was stabbed in the side during the fight.
After the gunfire ended, Hackley’s friends tried to flag down a car to get him to a hospital, but were ignored until pizza delivery man Kaydeem Francis, 27, stopped to help.
Francis, of Flatbush, was driving north on Ocean Ave. in a gray 2013 Nissan, when he saw a crowd.
“They tried to flag down 10 or 12 cars but everyone else drove past,” Francis told The News. “I had to decide to do my job or help out.”
Francis drove the bloodied Hackley to Kings County Hospital, where he died at 11:45 p.m.
“I did everything I could do and it still wasn’t enough,” he said. “I have a daughter, 2 years old. I just hope someone can return the favor for me or my daughter one day.”
When cops arrived at the crime scene, they saw Brown pull the yellow-handled kitchen knife out of his side, sources said. He told police that Hackley was grappling with a gunman.
Moments after the shooting, Brown ripped the silver gun out of the man’s hands and threw it under a parked red minivan, sources said.
Brown, clearly distraught, declined to talk with a reporter Wednesday.
“It's been a long night,” he said. “I’m still dealing with the death.”
Brown’s mother added, “It’s a sad, sad story. He was just a kid.”
Security video from the scene shows Brown and Hackley in a fight with a group of men that spilled in between parked cars, sources said. The killer ran north on Ocean Ave., as Brown chased him.
Cops recovered the gun and the knife.
Hackley had visited his father and half-brother in New Jersey on Sunday.
“He was relaxed, working out, swimming and hanging out with his sibling on his father’s side,” Bernard said. “I don’t know why he came back to Brooklyn.”
She said he was visiting a friend in Flatbush who had a beef with the gunman over the friend’s ex-girlfriend — and Hackley somehow got drawn in.
Bernard had been busy in recent weeks planning a celebration for her only child’s 21st birthday in August. But Hackley turned down her plan to rent a villa for him in Costa Rica.
“He’s like, ‘No, Mommy, I don’t want a party. My main focus is to purchase a building by the time I graduate out of college to start my investment,’ ” Bernard said.