The family of a Brooklyn man fatally shot by his neighbor, who himself died an hour later in a shootout with a police officer, was baffled by the turn of events, saying the victim had never interacted with his killer.
Leroy Wallace, 41, was returning home to his apartment near Hegeman Ave. and Thomas S. Boyland St. in Brownsville around 5:30 a.m. after a night out, when his next-door neighbor Dashawn Larode, 24, ambushed him and shot him at close range, police said. Wallace’s stunned family was still struggling to make sense of the carnage days later.
“We’ve never had any conversations with them,” said Wallace’s 22-year-old daughter-in-law, who declined to give her name. “It was just, if they left their key, they would press all the doorbells to see if anyone was home. That was it. We’ve never exchanged words.”
”Nobody in the building ever communicated,” added the daughter-in-law, who married Wallace’s eldest son.
Wallace, a gambling enthusiast, had just gotten home from Resort World Casino in Queens when he was shot, police and family said. His house keys were found on the ground next to his body, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a briefing on Thursday.
Born in Jamaica, Wallace was a “very jovial person,” his daughter-in-law said.
“Very kind-hearted,” she said. “He loved to help people. He would take his last and give it to a person. He would come out and see our neighbors and say hi to them. He was a very good, kind person.”
“He was very involved in his kids’ life,” she added.
“He’s the best dad in the world. He did so much for me,” said Wallace’s 14-year-old son, who spoke to a Daily News reporter with his sister-in-law outside the apartment building.
Wallace’s daughter-in-law said her husband had stepped outside the apartment to look for his father, whose phone showed him in the area, when he unexpectedly walked into the crime scene.
“That’s when he came outside and met the police,” she said. “They asked him what’s his name, and that’s when they started asking him questions about his dad. He saw the body under the white sheet and then that’s when he sent me a message, and he said, ‘It looks like my dad is dead.’ I said, ‘What?’ I started crying at the same time. My co-workers asked me what happened and then I booked an Uber.”
“I came home and there he was,” she said, “laying on the sidewalk.”
After finding Wallace’s body around 6 a.m., police officers mistakenly assumed Larode had fled the scene after no one answered the door to his apartment.
Police Officer Sharjeel Waris was guarding a shell casing being preserved as evidence in the building’s vestibule when Larode suddenly opened his apartment door and blasted a shotgun at him from short range, police said.
Waris, 25, a four-year NYPD veteran, returned fire, fatally striking Larode, who had barricaded himself back inside his apartment.
Waris was rushed to Brookdale University Hospital with a minor birdshot pellet wound to the left side of his face. He has since been discharged and is recovering, according to police.
Larode’s sister, Dashawna Larode, who he lived with, similarly said her brother and the victim never had any prior conflicts. She described Wallace as a “great guy.”
Dashawna said her brother appeared fine a year ago when he was honorably discharged from the Army and moved in with her. But his mood darkened after their apartment was burglarized.
“He started to be more paranoid about things,” she said. “I was worried about him. He thought the government was after him, that certain people were going to come after him and kill him.”
“I just think he was out of his right mind,” she said. “I don’t think my brother would naturally take somebody’s life. He’s never shown aggression in the past.”
Larode’s sister was in her room sleeping when her brother killed Wallace and returned to their apartment. She didn’t know anything had happened until police arrived, she said.
“I woke up to the police banging on the walls, banging on everything. Saying, ‘Open up! Open up! Drop the shotgun! Drop the shotgun!’” she recalled. “I had just woken up. I was really shocked.”
