Bed-Stuy Moms' Killers May Have Been Retaliating After Another Shooting, Police Say

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — Two men who fatally shot two young Bed-Stuy mothers last week could have been taking revenge after another shootout and missed their intended target, said an NYPD official.

Evidence shows that the shooters were aiming at someone in the crowd that had gathered outside the Stuyvesant Garden Houses on July 12 when Chynna Battle, 21, and Shaqwanda Staley, 29, lost their lives, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce.

“We think it has to do with a prior shooting back in May, but that’s just conjecture at this point,” said Boyce at an unrelated press conference on Monday. “We don’t believe these women had anything to do with it.”

Four men stomped into the courtyard behind 760 Gates Ave. at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and opened fire on the small party gathered there — Battle was shot in the head and Staley took a bullet to the back, police said.

Police have since been gathering and analyzing surveillance footage that shows the men — whom they believe hail from the Eleanor Roosevelt Houses on Pulaski Street — entering and leaving the courtyard, said Boyce.

“Right now, we’re trying to find out what the beef is,” Boyce said, adding that community members had provided names of suspects. “We’re getting close.”

The shooter's two victims were rushed to area hospitals after the shooting, but doctors were unable to save their lives, police said.

Battle’s stepmother Sandra Burgon told Patch the day after the shooting that she could not forgive the men who took her “little girl” away.

"Whoever did this to my stepdaughter, listen to me loud and clear," Burgon said. "You turned our worlds upside down, I have no forgiveness in my heart for you."

Photo by Kathleen Culliton