Murder of Yusef Hawkins

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Yusef Kirriem Hawkins (also spelled as Yusuf Hawkins, March 19, 1973 – August 23, 1989) was a 16-year-old Black teenager from the neighborhood of East New York, in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, who was shot to death on August 23, 1989, in Bensonhurst, a predominantly Italian-American working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Hawkins, his younger brother, and two friends were attacked by a crowd of 10 to 30 white youths, with at least seven of them wielding baseball bats. One, armed with a handgun, shot Hawkins twice in the chest, killing him. Four people were convicted for their part in the incident, including a prison term for second-degree murder given to the shooter. In 2005, former Gambino crime family member Joseph D'Angelo admitted that the killers were present at his request, meant to serve as protection for his property from an expected racially motivated situation, which instead created the situation.

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