Mortally wounded man of Guyanese origins refuses to tell cops about shooter

Aug 23, 2019 News

New York (New York Daily News) – A 28-year-old man shot on the street in Brooklyn refused to give cops any information about his killer as he lay dying in the hospital, authorities said Wednesday.

Arsenio Gravesande (right), a friend of slain rapper Nipsey Hussle (left), was shot in the left hip at Union St. and Sutter Ave. in Brownsville, Brooklyn on Tuesday. The bullet apparently struck a major artery and eventually killed Gravesande at the hospital.

Arsenio Gravesande — a close friend of slain rapper Nipsey Hussle who even appeared in one of the rapper’s music videos — was blasted in the left hip on Union St. and Sutter Ave. in Brownsville about 9:20 p.m. Tuesday, cops said.
The bullet apparently struck a major artery.
“The ambulance came and I got in there with him,” said Gravesande’s cousin, Bethany Samuels, 35. ″He was moving around, he was grabbing everything; he didn’t want to stay stabilized. He didn’t want to stay down. He kept telling me, ‘Bethany I’m dead, I can’t breathe, I’m dead.’ I was telling him, ‘No you’re not dead.’”
He was conscious when medics rushed him to Brookdale University Hospital but refused to tell police anything about the gunman, a police source said. He died at the hospital a short time later.
There have been no arrests.
Gravesande received a phone call Tuesday night to meet someone around the corner from his Brooklyn home, according to Samuels.
“It probably was a setup,” Samuels said. “People just hate you for no reason. It’s crazy.”
Gravesande and two of his friends walked down the block, Samuels said. Five minutes later, she heard shots ring out.
“One of his friends came running around saying, ‘Arsenio got hit, Arsenio got hit,’” she said. “So I ran around the corner and he was on the floor saying he can’t breathe.”
Gravesande is one of five people across the city shot to death during a frightening 24-hour span. Two Brooklyn men died after a gunman opened fire on them in Coney Island about two hours after Gregory Haskins, 25, of Jamaica, Queens, took a fatal bullet to the chest.
Angel Nixon, 18, was also gunned down in Jamaica after an argument with a man early Wednesday morning.
While shootings are up in the city by just over four per cent so far this year compared to last, homicides are down.
As of Sunday, cops have investigated 495 shootings this year compared to 475 by this time last year, officials said.
There have been 191 murders across the five boroughs this year, compared to 199 during the same period last year, a four per cent drop, according to NYPD stats.
Cops were back at the scene of Gravesande’s slaying Wednesday looking for evidence and surveillance video that could help them identify the gunman.
Gravesande, who has a four-year-old daughter and a seven-year-old son, was a member of the G Stone Crips gang and had seven arrests on his record, a police source said. He was previously wounded during a 2012 shooting that left his friend, boxer Trendon Franklin, dead. Cops have not established a motive for Gravesande’s killing.
His cousin acknowledged Gravesande was affiliated with the Crips.
“He was like the head of them, he controlled them here,” Samuels said.
“He barbecued and did giveaways to the kids. He was a good person and did good things for everybody out here. He tried to keep the streets clean. Some people are not in gangs for bad vibes. Some people are in gangs to give away to the community. He never killed nobody, he never hurt nobody. He wasn’t like that.”
“That was my favorite cousin,” Samuels added. “We did everything together. We partied, we went bowling. We had a lot of fun in life together . . . We’re never going to see him again. That’s crazy. I can’t believe this. It’s like a dream.”
Gravesande’s mother was too distraught to talk to a reporter.
“She’s not too well,” Samuels said. “She can’t even sleep. She keeps saying her baby is gone, her baby is gone. That’s her youngest.”