3 YEARS LATER, BULLET KILLS INNOCENT VICTIM
Police say gunman admitted to shooting person sitting in car in Brooklyn; victim’s father mourns his caring, talented son
A 24-year-old man paralyzed three years ago when he was shot sitting in a car in Brooklyn has now died — and the gunman confessed to the victim’s father it was all a case of mistaken identity.
Romel Jules was sitting in the passenger seat of a Volkswagen Jetta at a traffic light just around the corner from his Crown Heights home when he was shot in the upper back at around 12:55 a.m. on April 25, 2021. The gunman walked up to the car and let off 11 rounds.
A few days later, Maurice Williams approached the victim’s father and confessed, cops said.
Dad Ruskin Jules, 47, says he recognized Williams from around the neighborhood.
“He told me that he was sorry for shooting him, that he didn’t mean to shoot him and it wasn’t meant for him,” he told the Daily News on Thursday.
Williams told the victim’s father that a young woman had convinced him a member of a rival gang was in the car.
“He just got hyped by a girl ’cause she told him ‘the ops’ — the enemy — is driving that car,” Ruskin Jules recalled. “And he didn’t look in the car, he just shot up the car.”
The father says he told the shooter: “My son forgives you. Not me.”
Medics rushed the victim from the scene at Nostrand Ave. and Montgomery St. to Kings County Hospital in critical condition.
As Jules lay paralyzed in a hospital bed, Williams was arrested three months after the shooting, on July 8, 2021, and charged with attempted murder, assault and criminal use of a firearm.
The distinctive multicolored clothing the attacker wore when he opened fire on Jules helped detectives track the gunman’s movements caught on surveillance videos, leading to an indictment and arrest warrant.
Williams has been held without bail on Rikers Island since his arrest for the shooting. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder and criminal use of a firearm on March 11, court records show, and is due back in Brooklyn Criminal Court for sentencing May 1.
After spending the rest of his life in hospitals and care facilities, Romel Jules died nearly three years to the day after he was shot. His death has been ruled a homicide, police said, with the city Medical Examiner determining the cause to be complications of gunshot wounding to the back with injury of the spinal cord.
The Brooklyn district attorney’s office is considering its options, a spokesman said when asked if Williams will now be charged with murder.
Romel Jules had been battling pneumonia for the two months before his death, his father said. But before he fell ill, Romel’s family had been preparing to bring him home, where he would have had nurses available 24 hours a day.
He never made it there.
On Thursday, Romel Jules’ family remembered him as intelligent, musically talented and generous.
“[He was] always willing to step forward, take initiative, helping people in need,” said his 31-year-old brother, who asked not to be named. “Something’s wrong with your car and he knows how to do it, he wouldn’t just
walk past. He’ll stop for anybody and give them a hand.”
“He DJ’d, played drums. [He played drums] since he was probably like 7. He was great,” the brother added. “He DJ’d for a Caribbean DJ radio station. … He played soca music, reggae music.”
Romel Jules’ father said his son was wellliked in their neighborhood, where he grew up with five siblings.
“He was very protective of the people in the neighborhood, especially the old people,” said Ruskin Jules. “All the kids on the block respect him. The old people, he would make sure they get inside, open the doors, help them with their bags.”
A GoFundMe created a week after the shooting shows Jules with a smile on his face as he lay in a hospital bed. He was paralyzed from the shoulders down and in need of stem cell surgery.
Family said Jules flatlined multiple times after the shooting, was in a medically induced coma and couldn’t speak for months.
After initially being treated at Kings County Hospital, Romel Jules eventually went to a long-term acute care hospital in Brooklyn. Despite only minor physical progress over the years, he managed to stay hopeful.
“He was just trying to keep a healthy spirit because I know it wasn’t easy for him,” said the brother. “His situation, he didn’t think of it as a negative. He kept thinking about it as ‘I’m gonna keep fighting to try to get back to how I once was.’”
Romel Jules passed his time in the acute care facility in physical therapy, napping, watching TV and having visits and FaceTime calls with a constant stream of friends and family.
“[I would visit him] almost every other weekend. He had a lot of people that would come see him. He had elderly, middle-aged and younger friends. Everybody asked about him,” said the brother. “So he’d just see multiple faces, to keep more of an uplifting spirit.”
Williams, 22 at the time of shooting, had been arrested eight times dating back to 2017 before his attempted-murder bust.
He was arrested in April 2021 for stealing a key fob from the Times Square Marriott Hotel parking lot and trying to drive away with a car before employees foiled him and he ran off. On the same day, he was charged with grand larceny of a vehicle for a January 2021 incident in which he stole a black Camaro from a W. 44th St. garage, police said.
Less than two weeks after he was arrested for attempted murder, Williams was hit with federal charges for acting as a gunman in a three-person armed robbery of a cell phone warehouse on 73rd St. in Jackson Heights on Nov. 15, 2020, according to court records.
While Williams held the gun, a second man used duct tape to bind a male worker and shove him into a back room. The suspects got away with about 50 iPhones valued at $17,500, court filings say.
“He has pled guilty to a shooting involving Mr. Jules,” said Adam Silman Uris, Williams’ lawyer, adding that the plea involves a 25-year prison sentence. “I haven’t spoken to him since Mr. Jules died, but I am sure he would express his condolences to the family for this terrible loss.”
“I’m not sure what benefit would adding charges be at this point,” added Uris. “Our hope is that with this sentencing, Mr. Jules’ family can put this part of the tragedy in the past and move on. (Mr. Williams) hopes that his family can find peace.”
“I’m taking it day by day,” said Jules’ brother of his death. “I’m just trying to keep composure. I’m trying to keep everything together.”