FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 17, 2019
Brooklyn Man Indicted for Critically Wounding Girlfriend
And Killing Her Pregnant Friend in Axe Attack
Allegedly Struck Victims, both Mothers, Multiple Times with an Axe
Inside Girlfriend’s Apartment Where her 4-Year-Old Daughter Was Present
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 34-year-old Brooklyn man has been arraigned on an indictment in which he is charged with murder, attempted murder and assault for an axe attack during which he allegedly hacked his girlfriend multiple times, leaving her in critical condition, and fatally struck her friend.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “The brutality of this attack, which claimed the life of a pregnant mother and left a second young mother fighting for her life, is truly appalling. These horrifying alleged actions have traumatized two families and shocked our community. I intend to prosecute this case vigorously and hold the defendant responsible for the violent crimes with which he is charged.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Jerry Brown, 34, of East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He was arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice on an indictment in which he is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. The defendant was ordered held without bail and to return to court on August 9, 2019. He faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of the top count.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on April 20, 2019, at approximately 1:35 a.m., the defendant allegedly attacked his 21-year-old girlfriend and her friend Savannah Rivera, 20, with an axe inside his girlfriend’s apartment in the Bushwick Houses on Flushing Avenue near Humboldt Street in East Williamsburg. His girlfriend’s 4-year-old daughter was present in the apartment during the attack.
It is alleged that the defendant fatally struck Rivera, hitting her repeatedly, and hacked his girlfriend multiple times, causing a severe laceration to the back of her head and gashes to her torso, arms and throat. After the defendant left the apartment, the surviving victim made her way outside, approached an Uber car that was stopped at a traffic light and the driver called 911. She was taken to Elmhurst Hospital where she remains in critical condition.
The defendant surrendered to police at the 90th Precinct later that day at approximately 5:30 p.m. During an interview with investigators, the defendant confessed to attacking Rivera and stated that he threw the axe and his girlfriend’s cellphone in the building’s incinerator. He also stated that he washed blood off his hands before leaving the apartment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Howard Jackson, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Joseph Bianco, of the District Attorney’s Grey Zone Trial Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Timothy Gough, Homicide Bureau Chief.
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An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt