It Was ‘Crips Night Out’, Detective Testifies at Brooklyn Murder Trial

BY JHERELLE  BENN & ALEXANDRA SEMENOVA

The 2012 murder of a 13-year-old basketball star was part of the agenda for an event called “Crips night out,” a detective testified in Brooklyn Supreme Court Thursday morning.

Detective Paul Parsekian of the 73^rd Precinct in Brownsville said that the killing was gang affiliated when cross-examined on the witness stand.

Ronald Wallace III allegedly was shot to death by 17-year-old Akbar Johns on the evening of Friday, August 24, 2012 in Brownsville. Wallace and his older brother Kyseen, 15, were on their way to McDonalds with a group of friends when they were greeted by Johns who said, “What’s crackin’?” Johns stands accused of then reaching for his gun after he passed them and shooting at the group of boys, striking Wallace in the back.

Wallace tried to run, but the bullet felled him. He died in the ambulance on his way to Brookdale University Hospital shortly after the shooting.

Wallace was a budding basketball player and was preparing to play for Richmond Hill High School in Queens after being recruited by the team. His grandmother called him a wonderful boy when asked to comment on the trial. “We just want justice served,” said Wallace’s mother, Tiffany Orr.

The defendant admitted to firing the gun and later disposing it in a bush on Tapscott Steet. “I did not mean to shoot anybody. I was just trying to get them away from me,” said Johns when once asked to comment on the shooting.

Both families were at the trial. “We gave our condolences,” said Johns’s aunt, who refused to be named. “Nobody is winning here.”