{"id":232704,"date":"2026-05-15T14:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/232704\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T14:34:39","slug":"gunman-gets-15-years-to-life-for-2020-killing-of-innocent-bystander-in-crown-heights-park-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/232704\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunman gets 15 years to life for 2020 killing of innocent bystander in Crown Heights park \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brooklyn man convicted of gunning down an innocent bystander<\/a> during a chaotic shooting in a crowded Crown Heights park was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years to life in prison. The ruling caps a yearslong prosecution tied to a broad-daylight attack that killed a father of two.<\/p>\n

The defendant, 21-year-old Gucci Morris, was sentenced on May 12 to 15 years to life in prison for the fatal shooting of 53-year-old Christopher Ross on Aug. 9, 2020 in Crown Heights. According to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez\u2019s office, Ross was enjoying a summer afternoon in Lincoln Terrace Park when he was struck by a bullet intended for someone else.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristopher Ross was a father who went to a neighborhood park and never came home,\u201d Gonzalez said in a statement. \u201cThe defendant fired multiple shots in a space filled with families and children, killing a man who had nothing to do with the dispute, but was just trying to enjoy a summer afternoon. No family should have to endure that loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A mural inside the handball courts at Lincoln Terrace Park in August 2020, where Christopher Ross was shot and killed by a stray bullet.File photo by Paul Frangipane<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Morris arrived at the park at approximately 5 p.m. that day with a group of friends while carrying a loaded handgun. Around the same time, Ross arrived at the park to play handball with friends.<\/p>\n

Authorities said a fight broke out between two groups near a playground and the handball courts when Morris pulled out the gun and fired several shots. One bullet traveled through a fence surrounding the court and struck Ross in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

The gunfire sent families and children running for cover in the crowded park, prosecutors said. Morris fled with others and later changed his appearance to avoid arrest.\n<\/p>\n

Investigators identified Morris through witness statements, surveillance video<\/a>, cellphone evidence and people who knew him, prosecutors said. He was arrested in February 2022 and convicted of second-degree murder last October following a jury trial.<\/p>\n

Ross\u2019 death marked the second shooting in Lincoln Terrace Park that summer, after a 27-year-old man was found dead on the park\u2019s steps<\/a> with gunshot wounds to the head on July 7, 2020.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ross\u2019 death marked the second shooting in Lincoln Terrace Park that summer, following an earlier incident on July 7, 2020, when a 27-year-old man was found dead on the park\u2019s steps with gunshot wounds to the head.File photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

At the time of the shooting, Crown Heights\u2019 77th Precinct was experiencing a sharp rise in gun violence during a turbulent summer across New York City. As of Aug. 19, 2020, shootings in the precinct had increased 125% compared with the same period a year earlier, with 36 incidents reported in 2020 versus 16 in 2019.<\/p>\n

Nearly six years later, shootings in the precinct have fallen sharply. As of May 10, the most recent date for which NYPD data<\/a> is available, there had been just three reported shootings in the precinct \u2014 though that still marked an increase over the two incidents recorded during the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn DA said Tuesday that Ross\u2019 killing underscored the devastating consequences of gun violence in public spaces.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office will continue the steady work of keeping guns off Brooklyn streets and ensuring people can feel safe in our communities,\u201d Gonzalez said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn man convicted of gunning down an innocent bystander during a chaotic shooting in a crowded Crown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3926,98,5531,100,99,91287,419,303,102,91288,91289,91290,9,24,12,370,63,3209,1096],"class_list":["post-232704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-77th-precinct","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-district-attorney","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-christopher-ross","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-crown-heights","tag-da-eric-gonzalez","tag-gucci-morris","tag-lincoln-terrace-park","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-sentencing","tag-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}