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Man Charged With Shooting Roommate to Death in Brooklyn

By DNAinfo Staff on March 22, 2012 12:31pm

By Nicholas Rizzi and Wil Cruz

DNAinfo Staff

BROOKLYN — A 72-year-old man shot and killed his roommate in their apartment in East Flatbush, police and neighbors said.

Ronald Black shot Cornell Heslop, 43, one time in the chest Wednesday night inside their basement unit at 144 E. 93rd St., police said.

"I thought it was a firecracker," said Michelle, a neighbor who refused to give her last name.

Heslop's girlfriend stormed out of the apartment seconds later, Michelle added.

"Help me. Help me. He's shot!" the girlfriend cried, Michelle said. "I just heard the girl getting louder and louder."

Paramedics rushed Heslop to Brookdale Hospital, where he died, police said.

Heslop's friends and family visited his apartment Thursday morning, but were too distraught to talk.

Black, who has four sealed arrests on his record, was busted Thursday and charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He has not yet been arraigned, officials with the Brooklyn District Attorney's office said Thursday.

Cops were investigating the motive.

Neighbors said the men, who shared a communal kitchen and bathroom, argued over something in the apartment some time before cops arrived at 10:15 p.m.

It was unclear how long Heslop, who a police source said has a prior arrest for criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of marijuana in Florida, lived in the apartment. But Michelle said he was always kind to her 9-year-old son during the time he was there.

"He'll be missed by me," she said of Heslop.