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Man Found Shot to Death in Cargo Van on Residential Street

By  Bryan Graham and Sonja Sharp | April 9, 2013 4:03pm | Updated on April 9, 2013 8:56pm

 Martin Williams, 42, was found shot dead in a van in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens April 9, 2013.
Martin Williams, 42, was found shot dead in a van in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens April 9, 2013.
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DNAinfo/Sonja Sharp

NEW YORK — A Brooklyn man was found shot to death inside a cargo van parked on a quiet Prospect-Lefferts Gardens street Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

Police responded to a call at 12:50 p.m. of a male shot at 327 Hawthorne St., officials said. 

Authorities found Martin Williams, 42, in the passenger side of the van with what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds, the NYPD said.

Paramedics pronounced him dead on arrival, officials said.

Police said Williams was first shot more than one block west on Hawthorne Street, then he drove across Nostrand Avenue while trying to escape before crashing the van.

A woman who identified herself as the cousin of the victim said he went by Darnell Williams and was a construction worker from Canarsie.

"I have no idea why he would have been out here," she said.

The woman said police instructed her to go to a nearby hospital, where she spent hours waiting before returning to the scene and finding that her cousin's body was still in the van.