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Mount Vernon resident Heyward Bradshaw was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting 41-year-old Mount Vernon resident Kwasi Kirton in March 2022, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced on Thursday, Aug. 10.
According to DA officials, on the day of the shooting, March 4, 2022, around 11:30 p.m., Bradshaw had been engaging in a verbal dispute with Kirton inside a bodega in Mount Vernon.
This dispute then erupted into violence when Bradshaw chased Kirton outside and shot at him nine times using a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.
Bradshaw first fired one shot from the sidewalk and then fired a total of four shots on East 3rd Street. After Kirton fell to the ground, Bradshaw then ran up to him and shot him four more times before hiding inside a nearby apartment building.
Kirton, who was already known to Bradshaw, was hit seven times in the chest, neck, thigh, shoulder, and forearm and taken to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
After the shooting, Bradshaw fled to Connecticut before staying at an apartment in the Bronx, where he was located and arrested on March 6, 2022, following an investigation.
With help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mount Vernon Police also executed a search warrant and were able to find the gun used in the shooting.
Bradshaw eventually pleaded guilty on Friday, May 19 to first-degree manslaughter. After his prison term, he will be required to serve five years of supervised release.
In a statement regarding the sentencing, Rocah called Bradshaw a "dangerous offender who opened fire on a defenseless man."
"We hope today’s sentence brings some measure of justice for Kwasi Kirton’s family," she added.
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