‘Cain & Abel’ nightmare
Man charged in shooting death of his half-brother in B’klyn
Billy Hippolyte and his half-brother Samuel will forever be linked — both in life and in death.
The Brooklyn siblings, who have the same father but different mothers, share the same birthday: July 1.
In January, Samuel Hippolyte fatally shot his older brother in a petty dispute over money, police and heartbroken family members said.
“They had their problems like any brothers with different parents,” Billy Hippolyte’s sister Ruth Hippolyte told the Daily News. “But we never thought bullets would fly.”
After weeks on the lam, Samuel Hippolyte, 26, was grabbed by the NYPD and U.S. Marshals after he returned to his Canarsie home Thursday.
He’s accused of gunning down Billy, 40, near the corner of E. 83rd St. near Flatlands Ave. around 3 p.m. on Jan. 17 before jumping into a gray Toyota Highlander and speeding off toward the Belt Parkway.
Billy Hippolyte was shot in the torso, cops said.
“The guy was lying on the street face-up bleeding. Man, he was bleeding,” witness Aiden Huque, 26, told The News at the time. “People were running and screaming. They were pumping his chest but he wasn’t responding.”
Medics took Billy to Brookdale Hospital, but he could not be saved. The gifted mechanic and construction worker left behind a 6-year-old daughter, Ruth Hippolyte said.
“He — and she — didn’t deserve this,” she said. “This is a sad and terrible day for our family. A family member was killed by his own brother. For our family this is our 9/11.
Samuel Hippolyte lived two blocks from where he shot his older sibling. It was not immediately disclosed how much money the two were quarreling over.
As he evaded capture, a grand jury indicted Samuel on murder and weapons possession charges for killing his half-brother and an arrest warrant was issued.
After he was grabbed Thursday, he was brought to Brooklyn Supreme Court and ordered held without bail, court records show.
This is Samuel Hippolyte’s first arrest, police said.
Friday marked the second month anniversary of Billy’s death, his other sister Naomi Hippolyte told the Daily News.
“We are in pain. It’s just devastating,” she said. “I’m literally going through chest pains as we speak.”
Her half-brother Samuel “diabolically committed this crime,” she said.
“This is a tragedy,” she said. “This is a modern-day Cain and Abel story.”
Despite the outcome, Billy’s relatives are gratified the investigation’s over.
“We’re happy and relieved,” Ruth Hippolyte said about the arrest, thanking NYPD detectives and prosecutors for their efforts.
“We never could have believed it could come to this,” she said. “We’ve lost two brothers. One is in jail, and the other is in his grave.”