By Mark Hallum
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown charged a Hollis man with the murder of two individuals after a firearm linked him to the shootings through ballistics tests.
Neville Brown, 37, is accused of killing two men — a 21-year old and a 19-year old — in South Richmond Hill barely a month apart between December 2017 and January 2018, the DA said, and faces the possibility of 50 years in prison if convicted.
“This defendant is alleged to have taken part in the slaying of two men exactly four weeks apart,” Brown said. “Gun violence in our community is a scourge on our society and must end now. One man was gunned-down while seated in a vehicle near a playground and the other ambushed as he walked on a residential street after nightfall. The defendant, who was apprehended in upstate New York, now faces the likelihood of spending the rest of his life locked behind bars.”
On Dec. 19 at about 3 a.m., the accused was allegedly behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz when he passed a Cadillac Escalade on 125th Street and Atlantic Avenue several times. Surveillance footage showed two men, one believed to be Brown, get out of the car and approach the SUV occupied by the 21-year-old Dail Ramessar and four other people. The second man, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, presented a gun and fired a volley of rounds into the Escalade, hitting Ramessar several times before fleeing the scene, the prosecutor said.
Ramessar was taken to a nearby hospital, where he later died.
At 9 p.m. on Jan. 16, video surveillance showed the same Mercedes-Benz stop on 135th Street near 105th Avenue before a man in a hooded sweatshirt steps out and approaches 19-year old Omaree Morrison, who was walking down the street. Morrison was allegedly shot multiple times by the hooded suspect and died from his injuries.
Ballistics tests showed the same weapon was used in both shootings.
According to Brown, the suspect stated he was the driver of the Mercedes-Benz used in both shootings.
The defendant was arraigned on two separate complaints before Queens Criminal Court Judge Althea Drysdale, one for second-degree murder and the other for criminal possession of a firearm.
Drysdale ordered Brown to be held without bail until his next court date on Feb. 15.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
