Brooklyn Man Sentenced To 24 Years In State Prison For Fatally Shooting Reveler During 2014 J’Ouvert Celebration
A 28 year old man Derek Goodings has been tried and sentenced to prison for 24 years for shooting a 55 year old man. Apparently for reasons which only himself can describe, this 28 year old man decided to ruin a street party and open fire on hapless, unarmed people who neither provoked him nor even knew him before.
Derek approached people who were celebrating the J’ouvert Celebrations in Brooklyn New York and opened fire on this 55 year old man while people danced an celebrated this festival. This festival is Caribbean in nature and celebrate by people with Caribbean history or Caribbean blood in their ancestry. This crime was committed in 2014 and the case has dragged on for about 3 – 4 years now before this young man got convicted and sentenced this February.
Interestingly the young man and his lawyers pleaded to manslaughter, meaning that the man and his lawyers tried to convince the courts that he had no intention to kill anyone and yet killed this 55 year old grandfather in error. This was actually a hard nut to sell owing to the fact that the young man was in possession of a fire arm during a celebration which did not involve the use of firearms and this old man was certainly not a threat to him.
Details are sketchy and unclear as to if Dereck at any point in time knew the identity of his victim- Michael Sampson or any of the other victims of his senseless shooting spray. Facts have it that this young Dereck,as we so painfully see today in America opened fire on his victims while they were having a street parade and carnival for their celebrations. He shot Sampson point blank in the chest and also injured some other people. He was reported to have fired five times into the crowd.
Eric Gonzalez who is the District Attorney for New York (In acting capacity) explained that this kind of unwarranted and senseless taking of people’s lives will not be tolerated either in downtown Brooklyn or any other part of New York for that matter. He warned that troubled people better seek help as the law will come down heavy on whoever wants to cause mayhem of this magnitude in the town and city state.
The story is not even finished as Dereck was reported to have fired not only at his victims but at a police van parked nearby. The van had a police officer inside and the bullet struck the body of the police van. When the police engaged him in a hot pursuit he also turned on his pursuers and tried to fire at them only for him to realize that he was out of rounds. The police overpowered him and took him into custody.
Melissa Carvajal was the government lawyer who saw to it that justice was served. The case took a while to come to conclusion but at the end the young Dereck bagged a 24 year jail term with 5 year supervision even after he must have served his jail term.
