A 59-year-old addict who had just been released from rehab was fatally shot in the head during a clash inside a Queens residential building, police said Friday.
Police responding to a call of a person shot around 11:15 p.m. Thursday found Richard Brown dead inside a second-floor apartment inside the Ocean Bay Apartments, a NYCHA complex on Beach 54th St. near Arverne Blvd. in Edgemere, cops said.
Brown, whose nickname was “Homicide,” had been shot multiple times in the head, cops said.
Brown was homeless and often flopped at his friend’s place, where he was shot dead in the living room.
The witness, who called Brown his “uncle,” was in the bedroom when he heard the shots. He said that when he investigated, he found Brown dead in the living room and a 5-foot-9 heavyset Black man in a black hoodie running out of the apartment.
Brown died at the scene, cops said.
The witness was found inside the apartment the next morning, sopping up Brown’s blood from the floor.
“My uncle got killed last night,” said the friend, who wished not to be named. “He’s not like a blood relative but he’s like an uncle. I knew him since I was a baby. Over 36 years I knew that man!”