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Bloods Member Sentenced for Murder of Brownsville Security Guard

By Noah Hurowitz | April 25, 2017 10:21am
 Antonio Mahon, 22, murdered Aaron Locklear, 30, in 2014.
Antonio Mahon, 22, murdered Aaron Locklear, 30, in 2014.
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DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A Queens man will spend more than three quarters of a century in prison for fatally shooting a Brownsville security guard and that left another victim paralyzed, prosecutors said.

Antonio Mahon, 22, was sentenced on Monday to 76 years-to-life in prison for the murder of 30-year-old Aaron Locklear, who was working security at Riverdale Towers at Rockaway and Livonia avenues, on Nov. 28, 2014, prosecutors said.

Mahon, a member of the Bloods gang, walked past the housing complex where his rival gang members lived around 8:45 a.m., then spun around and fired two shots point blank, striking Locklear in the head and hitting another guard in the back, according to acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

“The victims in this case were two innocent young men simply doing their jobs who got caught in the cross-hairs of gang-related violence,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “Gang members should be on notice that shootings like this will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. “

Mahon was convicted in a jury trial earlier this month of of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree burglary, second-degree burglary, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of second-degree assault, criminal possession of a firearm and second-degree menacing, prosecutors said.

Locklear died five days after the shooting on Dec. 3 at Brookdale Hospital, and the other guard was transported to Kings County Hospital, where doctors managed to save his life, but he was left partially paralyzed from the waist down, according to Gonzalez. 

The shooting was part of a campaign of terror by Mahon against those he considered to be rivals, which included a home invasion earlier that morning when he chased another man at gunpoint into a nearby apartment, prosecutors said. Shortly before the shooting Mahon was spotted on surveillance footage pointing a handgun at another victim’s head, according to prosecutors.

Following the shooting, investigators found a black and silver .40-caliber pistol in a garbage can less than a block away, along with two shell casings found at 330 Bristol Street, the place where he menaced another victim at gunpoint, police said.

Mahon was arrested Jan. 9, 2015 at a relative’s home in Queens and confessed to the shooting, as well as being identified in three lineups, according to prosecutors.