Ditmas Park Shooter Convicted Of Murder, Prosecutors Say

DITMAS PARK, BROOKLYN — A Ditmas Park man who blasted six shots at another man outside a Newkirk Avenue bodega was convicted of murder Thursday, prosecutors said.

Patrick Zephir, 36, was convicted for the 2015 murder of Raphael Kurton, 27, outside Friend’s Deli and Grocery Store on Newkirk Avenue and East 17th Street, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced.

Zephir whipped out a gun around 9:20 p.m. on May 26, fired off six shots, and hit at Kurton twice in the chest and thigh, said prosecutors.

Emergency responders rushed Kurton to Kings County Hospital but doctors were unable to save his life, prosecutors said.

The shooting sparked outrage among neighbors and Brooklyn elected officials who rallied outside the deli in the days following the fatal shooting, Bklyner reported.

“This rips apart our entire community,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who called for a crackdown on illegal guns. “Bad people leave the streets when good people take control of our streets.”

Zephir fled the state but was arrested two and a half months later in West Virginia, according to prosecutors.

A jury found Zephir guilty of murder and criminal possession of a weapon in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Thursday, said prosecutors.

Zephir is slated to be sentenced on April 9 and faces up to 25 years to life in prison, prosecutors said.

Photo of Patrick Zephir courtesy of the NYPD 70th Precinct/Twitter and of Friend’s Deli and Grocery Storecourtesy of Google Maps/Sept. 2017.