2 held in shoot near H.S.
1 suspect was out on bail in murder try, other is boy, 16
A man out on bail for attempted murder and a 16-year-old boy have been arrested in the shooting of two teens near a Brooklyn high school, police said Wednesday.
Ousmane Diallo, 21, is once again facing attempted murder charges, this time for allegedly blasting away at two 18-year-old men at a deli at 36th St. near Fourth Ave. in Sunset Park about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
Diallo and the 16-year-old boy were nabbed as they tried to get away on a city bus, authorities said. The gun used in the shooting was found under one of their seats, a police source said.
Diallo, a Crips gang member, lives in Crown Heights, cops said. On Aug. 10 he was arrested on attempted murder charges for a Brooklyn shooting on Jan. 27, 2022, and was out on $500,000 bail as he waited for that case to go to trial.
The boy, whose name was not released by cops because of his age, was charged with gun possession.
The victims were hanging out inside 952 Deli and Express, across the street from Sunset Park’s Public School 371 Lillian L. Rashkis High School, where they regularly go for snacks, according to the shop’s manager.
While it was first believed that the teens were enrolled in the Lillian L. Rashkis High School, police said Wednesday that no one involved in the shooting was linked to the school.
“The gunman just came in and started shooting. He didn’t say anything,” deli manager Damag Sufyan, 32, told the Daily News Tuesday. “It was like fireworks”
“One of the kids dove over the counter,” he added. “The other was just walking around bleeding. They were screaming, ‘I got shot! I got shot! Call 911!”
The victims were treated at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn.
Workers at the deli said the victims got into an argument with some other teens near the deli on Monday.
Diallo was ordered held without bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court Wednesday.
Despite his age, Diallo has amassed a lengthy criminal record with several gun arrests, and is a member of the “Babiiez” subset of the Insane Crips Gangsta gang, said Assistant District Attorney Daniel Stern.
He was out on probation after pleading guilty to weapon possession in a June 2019 attempted murder and pleaded guilty to robbery in a 2022 case. In both instances, he was granted youthful offender status and got three years probation, Stern said. He also absconded from probation for four months, the prosecutor said.
In the attempted murder case from January 2022, which he is out on bail for, Diallo spotted a member of a rival gang member walking out of a deli on Rogers Ave. and Montgomery St. in Crown Heights and started shooting, the prosecutor said. After firing nine or 10 rounds, Diallo hit his rival, who needed his spleen removed, Stern said.
The motive for Tuesday’s shooting was similar, the prosecutor said. Diallo and his teenage accomplice spotted two members of the Brownsville-based WOOO gang and started blasting, hitting one of them in the shoulder, the other in the armpit.
Diallo was caught wearing the same black sweatshirt with the word “free” written in teal letters on the back when police stopped the bus three minutes after the shooting, the prosecutor said.
“You clearly see the letters on the sweatshirt as he is running away,” Stern said.
His teenage accomplice was spotted by several witnesses wrapping something in a black puffer jacket, and when police searched the jacket, they found the gun bundled inside, the prosecutor said.
Outside the courtroom, Diallo’s girlfriend, Emani Westley, professed his innocence, describing him as a college student and a dutiful father to their 1-year-old child.
“He’s a great person,” she said. “He goes to school and he stays at home and takes care of our baby.”
The incident was the latest in a troubling surge of youth violence that led Schools Chancellor David Banks to call the situation “a state of emergency” in January.
He has maintained that the schools themselves are safe, attributing the spike in crime to conflicts after school.
Last month, the city assigned additional cops to cover schools, along with nearby bus stops and train stations, at dismissal time. Precinct commanders were told to meet weekly with principals to discuss “issues of note” and the policy was reiterated on a subsequent call with school leaders.