By Bryan Schwartzman
Jamel Jordan, 20, of 109-15 Merrick Blvd. was found dead by a passerby on the front lawn of a house on Sayers Avenue near 166th Street, said Police Officer Carmen Melendez, a department spokeswoman. The residents of the home apparently did not know Jordan, whose body was discovered at about 6:30 a.m. by a woman from the neighborhood on her way to work, Melendez said.
The victim may have been shot as much as two hours earlier, Melendez said. Jordan's body was found about two blocks east of the club on Guy Brewer Boulevard.
“My mother heard two shots – it came from the back,” said a Sayers Avenue resident who did not wish to be identified. He said nobody investigated the source of the sound behind his house because it was assumed the noise was made by firecrackers.
“How did he get to the front? It's very weird,” said the resident.
Police have not made any arrests, Melendez said. The death was ruled a homicide and the cause was determined to be gunshot wounds to the head which perforated the skull, said Ellen Borakove, a a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office.
Several neighborhood residents who would not give their names for fear of gang-related retribution, said the shooting resulted from a dispute in an alleged illegal club at the corner of Guy Brewer Boulevard and Proanne Avenue.
The gray building, which has no sign, advertising or address on the front, appears unoccupied during the day. But residents and a police officer who does not work in the 113th Precinct said that at night the building turns into a club where girls as young as 15 strip and get paid for sex while boys of the same age buy drugs and gamble.
The building is less than a mile west of Jordan's Merrick Boulevard apartment building.
Officials of the 113th Police Precinct would not comment on whether they were investigating the club.
“This is news to me,” said Yvonne Reddick, the district manager of Community Board 12.
“This used to be the drug capital of the world,” said a resident who has lived in the neighborhood for six years. He said it has been cleaned up for the most part
Family and friends put together a makeshift memorial for Jordan in the dim lobby of the apartment building where he lived with his parents, brothers, and young daughter.
“Everybody knew him,” said Jordan's mother, Brenda Dawkins, during an interview Saturday at the apartment. Dawkins held her infant granddaughter Janel as she tried to fight off her own tears.
“This is going to be a great loss for us,” Dawkins said.
Jordan was known around the neighborhood as Snoop, because he was tall and skinny like the West Coast rap star, Snoop Dogg, his mother said.
Jordan had dropped out of high school and had been unemployed for some time.
Dawkins had also been told that the shooting stemmed from a dispute at the club.
“He was a fighter, he wasn't scared of anybody,” she said. “I hope they shut the place down and find the person who did this.”
Dawkins said her granddaughter would be raised by Jordan's girlfriend, Loraine.
“I'm not looking for revenge, I just want justice,” Dawkins said.
