FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Brooklyn Man Who Shot and Paralyzed 11-Year-Old GirlPleads Guilty to Felony Assault; Faces 17 Years in Prison
Child Caught in Gunfire As Defendant Fired At Rival Gang Members
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a 19-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant man has pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault for a 2013 shooting that left an 11-year-old girl paralyzed. The defendant is expected to receive 17 years in prison when he is sentenced next month.
District Attorney Thompson said, “Senseless gang violence has changed this beautiful little girl’s life forever. With this guilty plea, she will now be spared the trauma of testifying about being shot, the defendant is guaranteed to serve a long time in prison and our streets are now safer.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Kane Cooper, 19, of 701 Gates Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. He pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of first-degree assault before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Joseph Gubbay, who indicated he would sentence the defendant to 17 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision. He set sentencing for June 8, 2015.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on May 31, 2013, the victim, Tayloni Mazyck, who was 11-years-old at the time, was sitting in front of her building at 600 Gates Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, with her mother and cousins, when she was struck by one of 10 bullets fired by Kane Cooper. The defendant was firing in the direction of several purported members of the ‘Gates Avenue Mafia,’ who were hanging out half-a-block away in front of 590 Gates Avenue.
Tayloni was struck by one bullet that lodged in her spine and left her paralyzed from the waist down.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Edward Carroll, Chief of the District Attorney’s Crime Strategies Unit