Inset: James Brown (Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office). Background: Long Island, New York, home where Brown killed his buddy in November 2023 (News 12).
A jury in New York on has convicted a 45-year-old man of second-degree murder after he shot his “longtime friend” to death on Long Island while repeatedly yelling “you wanna die?”
James Brown, 45, faces between 40 years and life in prison for the slaying of 45-year-old Umar Elquhir when he is sentenced on June 16, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a press release. Cops received several 911 calls around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 7, 2023, about a man later identified as Elquhir on the ground apparently suffering from gunshot wounds in the Poospatuck Reservation in Mastic. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
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Investigators learned the shooting happened next to Brown’s home. Surveillance footage from a smoke shop across the street showed Brown and Elquhir had been in a fistfight earlier in the night. Elquhir left, but returned in his car about two hours later and parked outside Brown’s home.
“When Brown came out of the home, he walked toward the victim’s car while repeatedly yelling, ‘You wanna die?’ before firing approximately nine shots into the vehicle,” prosecutors said.
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Several bullets hit Elquhir. He got out of his car but collapsed on the ground. Brown, meanwhile, walked back into his home. Cops lifted Brown’s palm print from the scene.
At trial, Brown testified he was scared for his life and fired in self-defense. In addition to murder, the jury also found him guilty of two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. He was convicted in 2012 of assault with a loaded weapon and served five years in prison.
“This previously convicted felon killed his longtime friend by shooting him multiple times,” District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement. “I thank the jury for the attention they paid to this case. We will seek a sentence that ensures defendant Brown can no longer hurt other Suffolk County residents.”
