Fatal Qns. feud
Woman held in shooting of working dad
A 38-year-old woman has been arrested for her involvement in the shooting death of a hardworking Queens dad, authorities said Wednesday.
Avita Campbell was picked up Tuesday morning by the Regional Fugitive Task Force at her home in Valley Stream, L.I., and charged with murder and possession of a loaded gun, police said.
She is accused of helping to kill Lasaaun Lawrence, 27, on Beach 31st St. in Far Rockaway on Sept. 23. Lawrence and Campbell had a long simmering feud, sources said.
Prosecutors charged that Campbell and an accomplice rolled up on the victim’s car in a white four-door BMW sedan. She left the car with a metal pipe in her hands, while her accomplice approached Lawrence with a gun.
Her accomplice blasted as many as 14 rounds at Lawrence, court records say. Campbell then allegedly slammed the metal pipe into the windshield of Lawrence’s car.
She and the gunman then took off in the BMW, police said.
Lawrence was shot multiple times. Medics rushed him to St.
John’s Hospital, where he died.
On Oct. 2, cops pulled over the BMW near the Cross Island Parkway and Northern Blvd. in Bayside after a license plate scan set of an alert, prosecutors said. Campbell was driving, but her license had been suspended since 2019.
Inside a backpack on the floor of the car, they found a silver-andblack handgun with two loaded clips.
Cops also found Campbell in possession of 23 forged Century 21, Neiman Marcus and American Express gift cards, all registered to other people, authorities said. She also had four credit cards — two of them altered to draw on other people’s accounts and two others that were in others’ names.
She was also allegedly caught with more than 250 financial service, checking and savings account numbers.
Campbell was arrested on a slew of charges including unlicensed operation of a vehicle, weapon possession and multiple counts of forgery and identity theft. She was arraigned the next day and released without bail. She is due back in court Dec. 7 to face those charges.
Meanwhile, ballistics tests on Oct. 9 matched the gun recovered from the car to the 14 shell casings recovered from the scene of Lawrence’s murder, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors say the gunman was in the car with Campbell during her Oct. 2 car stop but only Campbell was arrested that day and he has not been apprehended for the murder.
Police sources said that Campbell and Lawrence had an ongoing financial dispute unrelated to the credit card fraud Campbell is accused of, sources say.
Lawrence, who lived in the Hammel Houses in Rockaway Beach, was a well-liked father of two who worked in construction.
“He liked to work. He wasn’t a street person, running the street like that,” Barbara Dickerson, one of Lawrence’s neighborhood “aunties” who treated the victim like family, told the Daily News last month.
“Everybody knew him in Rockaway, from one side to the other. He took care of himself,” said Dickerson, 57. “For him to die like that … I’m sorry, but it’s wicked.”
Campbell was ordered held without bail after being charged with murder. She is slated to return to court Friday.