By GABRIELA LIRA
A 20-year-old Brooklyn man was sentenced to 12 years in prison and six years of post release supervision on Tuesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, after earlier pleading guilty to fatally shooting a teenager almost two years ago.
At the sentencing, the mother of the victim, 17-year-old Kamau Chandler, told the court, “I do forgive him,” referring to the defendant, Claude Ward
The killing occurred in July, 2013 after a confrontation outside a Brooklyn bar, spurring Ward to shoot Chandler twice in the head and once in the chest. Ward escaped, but he was tracked down and caught in the Bronx by the police two months later.
“As a family, we continue feel deeply pained,” the victim’s mother, Jane Steven, also said in prepared remarks.
The defendant’s family members left the courtroom as she spoke and returned when she had finished, which the victim’s family deemed a sign of disrespect.
“I thought in the back of my mind that he would be able to say, you know, ‘I’m sorry,’ but I guess that is his way of thinking,” Steven said.
When the judge asked Ward if he wanted to say something to the victim’s family, he firmly shook his head.
Ward’s mother and siblings broke down when they heard the sentence while the victim’s family hugged and wept in relief.
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