Killed over a cheap lighter
Man is chased, gunned down outside bar
A Brooklyn barfly swiped another man’s cigarette lighter — and paid with his life.
Daquan Blount walked out of the New Heights Bar and Restaurant about 1:20 a.m. on Wednesday carrying the borrowed lighter, with the infuriated lender chasing him down the street and squeezing off five fatal shots on St. Marks Ave. near Schenectady Ave., police said.
Security video shows the gunman fighting with Blount, 28, before the shooter fired once as the pair ran around a parked car. Blount collapsed to the ground as the shooter pumped two more point-blank gunshots into the doomed man before bolting into the night, video shows.
Blount, the father of an infant boy, was struck in the arm and abdomen. He died at Interfaith Medical Center.
“I know it was definitely over a lighter,” said Maurice Lindsey, a cousin of the victim, while shaking his head. “He has a little boy that’s not even 1 yet.”
The victim was inside the Crown Heights bar when he asked to borrow the lighter from another patron before making the fatal mistake of taking it with him, police sources said. The lighter’s owner followed Blount outside, where an argument ensued and the fatal bullets were fired.
Blount “liked to cook and serve to his community,” recalled Lindsey. “He was a family man, a good person, sweet person. He’d give you his last if he had to.”
“He just wanted to make a way for his five kids,” Lindsey added. “He was just hanging out. He was killed over some nonsense.”
Another relative who asked not to be identified said Blount was a loving man and a good father.”
“He wanted to be a chef,” the relative said. “He just bought a house in New Jersey.”
Police said the victim had nine prior arrests, including charges of drugs, assault, driving drunk and fare evasion, police said. There were no immediate arrests in the slaying, the third in the neighborhood since Saturday.
On Sunday evening, a 53year-old man playing handball in Lincoln Terrace Park, Christopher Ross, was killed by a stray bullet.
Early Saturday, Robert Meyers, 36, was fatally shot on Buffalo Ave. near Park Place in what police believe was a gang-related incident.
No arrests have been made in either of those homicides.
The 77th Precinct, which covers the area, has been beset by a surge in violence this year.
Through Sunday, 13 people had been murdered so far this year compared to six by this time last year. Forty people have been shot in the precinct, twice the tally at this point last year.