On the evening of April 18, 2018, gunfire erupted outside Mt. Zion Pentecostal Holy Church on Hart Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Thirty-seven-year-old Claudell Gary was found nearby with gunshot wounds to the neck and leg and was taken to Woodhull Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The shooting happened about a block from his home.

Investigators treated the killing as linked to a year-long feud between Gary’s family and a local street gang known as the Brick Squad, a subset of the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation. No arrests were made at the scene, but investigators pursued leads including potential cell phone footage and later identified several Brick Squad members as responsible.

A Brooklyn grand jury returned a 48-count indictment in December 2019 charging ten alleged gang members and accusing Quazeer Farmer, Stephan Khadu, and Markel Pender of acting together in Gary’s murder. Quazeer Farmer was convicted of second-degree murder and conspiracy and Markel Pender pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, each receiving lengthy prison terms. Have readers in Bedford-Stuyvesant noticed anything about the Brick Squad or that area around April 2018 that could add context to the case?