Police reported on Tuesday that an ex-convict and a 50-year-old former gang member were shot to death after he dragged a screwdriver on his killer during a Brooklyn street clash.
At about 10:20 p.m. Monday, Reginald Thawney was shot in the chest during a dispute on New Lots Ave. near Mother Gaston Blvd. in Brownsville, cops said.
Thawney pulled out a screwdriver for defense but the killer dragged out a gun and shot him in the chest. Thawney was immediately brought to Kings County Hospital but he couldn’t be saved.
The gunman left behind a 9mm bullet casing and is being searched for. Cops said he was previously seen on video entering an establishment on New Lots Avenue about a half-mile away.
Thawney served almost 11 years in jail on four different drug convictions since 1990, records show. He was also a member of the G-Stone Crips, according to authorities.
In 2018 Thawney sued the city and the Department of Correction in Manhattan Federal Court, declaring several correction officers had intentionally moved him into a housing unit at the Manhattan Detention Complex filled with Blood members, even if he told the officers he was a former Crip and would be targeted because of his past gang affiliation.
Aged 43, the inmate did not consider himself an active member of the Crips, but the lawsuit expresses that his prior affiliation with the gang put him in danger of assault from members of a rival gang like the Bloods.
According to the lawsuit, in the new department, he was attacked by several Blood members armed with sharp razor-like objects and suffered multiple deep lacerations to his head, his left eyelid, and under his left eye. It was not directly evident if the suit was resolved before Thawney’s death.
