Crown Heights Drug Dealer Shot Pregnant Bystander In Drive-By: DA

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — A drug dispute boiled over into a Brooklyn drive-by shooting that left an innocent pregnant woman shot twice in the head, federal authorities said.

The woman survived and her shooter — Steven Bynum, 38 — on Tuesday copped a plea to federal charge that could send him to prison for life, announced Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Bynum, also known as "Nitty," actually targeted a rival drug dealer during the Sept. 10, 2017 shooting in East New York, according to a complaint filed in the Eastern District of New York.

The pair had a violent past, as detailed in court documents. Bynum had stolen three ounces of heroin and an ounce of cocaine from the other dealer and sold them in Kingsborough Houses in Crown Heights, authorities said.

The other dealer found out and demanded money for the drugs, court records state.

"Bynum refused," the records state. "On a subsequent occasion, the intended victim assaulted Bynum with a handgun in retaliation."

Bynum essentially returned the favor when he later spotted the other dealer on the street with a group of people and shot into the crowd, authorities said. He missed his target and instead hit the woman twice in the head.

She lived, but suffers partial paralysis and permanent cognitive difficulties, authorities said.