Mom & son held in vicious killing
A fugitive accused of shooting a Queens man to death — with his pipe-wielding mother as an accomplice — has been tracked down to Florida and arrested after months on the run, authorities said Wednesday.
Raymond Jackson, 22, fired 12 bullets into Lasaaun Lawrence’s vehicle during a Sept. 23 confrontation in Far Rockaway where his mother, Avita Campbell, 38, smashed the victim’s windshield with a metal pipe, according to cops.
Campbell was charged Oct. 14 with murder and weapons possession in Lawrence’s death and is being held at Rikers Island without bail.
“This mother-and-son duo allegedly teamed up to kill a man,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Wednesday. “A minor dispute over a few hundred dollars sparked this tragic shooting. This was a brutal, senseless killing that should not happen in our neighborhoods.”
Lawrence lived in the Hammel Houses in Rockaway Beach. He left behind two children.
“Everybody knew him in Rockaway, from one side to the other. He took care of himself,” friend Barbara Dickerson, 57, told the Daily News after Lawrence’s death. “For him to die like that … I’m sorry, but it’s wicked.”
Neighbors recalled Lawrence, known to friends as “Sonic,” landing a job at a now-defunct pizzeria at age 13, always working to help his family. He moved up from pizza maker to store manager, and later sold candy for $1 a pop on the street to help out his mother.
At 16, he was driving a local dollar van and eventually became a construction worker to support his family.
Campbell and Jackson, who live together in Valley Stream, L.I., drove to Far Rockaway in their white BMW and confronted Lawrence, 27, who was sitting in a double-parked car on Beach 31st St. near Seagirt Ave. about 5:40 p.m.
Jackson, prosecutors said, fired 12 rounds at Lawrence and then his mother smashed Lawrence’s windshield with the pipe. Medics took Lawrence to St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, but he could not be saved.
Police stopped Campbell and
Jackson on Oct. 2 in the same BMW near the Cross Island Parkway and Northern Blvd. in Bayside.
Investigators found a loaded gun in the car with two clips inside a book bag. They also found cash, credit cards and gift cards in other people’s names — and a ledger with the names of hundreds of people and their personal information, officials said.
Campbell was charged with unlicensed operation of a vehicle, weapon possession and multiple counts of forgery and identity theft, but Jackson was set free.
Ballistics tests later showed that the gun found in the book bag matched the weapon used in Lawrence’s murder. On Oct. 23, Jackson was indicted for murder as cops continued to try to track him down. Marshals finally caught up with him on Nov. 13 at a friend’s house in Lakeland, Fla., according to local reports.
Jackson was extradited from Florida and faces murder, assault and weapons charges. He was ordered held without bail when he was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Tuesday night.
If convicted, he and his mother face up to 25 years to life in prison.