A murderous gunman who pumped bullets into an SUV and killed a man inside, then shot a police officer during a heated gun battle in Brooklyn will spend 40 years to life behind bars, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Boyce Hayward almost killed NYPD Officer Brian McGurran on a Bedford-Stuyvesant street the night of May 12, 2021, but the then 28-year-old cop’s bulletproof vest saved his life.
“We must protect society from Boyce Hayward,” Assistant D.A. Robert Schwartz said at Hayward’s sentencing in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
The 30-year-old killer ran up to the passenger side of a white 2015 BMW SUV stopped at a red light at Madison St. and Broadway and opened fire, killing Randall Roberts, 28, and wounding the driver, Malik Lucas.
Shot NYPD Officer Leaves Kings County Hospital
He then walked off, and a few minutes later, got into a pitched firefight outside nearby Saratoga Park with three police officers responding to the shooting. Hayward fired five of the more than 20 bullets loosed in the gunfight, striking McGurren in the vest and buttocks. The officers shot and wounded Hayward.
In February, a jury found Hayward guilty of murdering, attempted murder and other charges, though they did not find him guilty of Roberts’ murder.
McGurran, who recovered from his wounds, watched the sentencing Wednesday along with several supporters, as did Roberts’ parents.
“The evidence was overwhelming, and then to deny that he killed my son?” Roberts’ mother, Rose Vincent said to the Daily News. “That night, he was in his car, minding his own business.”
In a statement the prosecutor read in court, Vincent said she’s haunted by nightmares of her final conversation with the son, where he told her, “Mom, I’ll come back to walk the dog.”
“I stand before you today, shattered by the loss of my beloved son,” she said in her written statement. “He is my soul, my reason for being … His loss left me not only with overwhelming grief but also this unshakeable sense of anger.”
Hayward’s lawyer, Lawrence Fredella, told Judge Danny Chun that he’ll appeal the verdict, arguing that Hayward denies to this day that he approached Roberts’ car and opened fire.
“This is not the man that fired into the vehicle,” he said. “The angle of the wound, the angle of the round that went through him could not have come from someone standing in the street.”
COP SHOT
Roberts was a member of the Bully Gang and had “numerous enemies … and my client was not one of them,” Fredella said. He pointed out that though the jury convicted him of attempted murder, they didn’t find him guilty of attempted murder of a police officer.
Prosecutors were asking for 75 years to life. Chun ultimately went with 40 to life, running the murder and attempted murder sentences consecutively.
“Video evidence does not lie,” Chun said. “In this case, there’s absolutely overwhelming evidence that the defendant stood around, waited, then walked up to that car [and] pumped bullet after bullet into that car.”
The judge continued, “He shot up that car, calmly walked away, turned the corner, continued to walk away, and when Officer McGurren attempted to stop him, he turned and shot at him.”
Police Benevolent Association Patrick Hendry praised Hayward’s lengthy sentence.
“We’re glad to see this depraved murderer and attempted cop-killer slapped with a life sentence, but he must be forced to serve every minute of it,” Hendry said. “Our brother put his life on the line to put this extremely dangerous individual behind bars. He needs to stay there for good.”
Chun sentenced Hayward as a predicate felon, based on a pair of felony drug cases from 2015 and 2016.
“This defendant brazenly opened fire twice in one night, killing one man and seriously wounding two others, including a police officer,” Brooklyn D.A. Eric Gonzalez said Wednesday. “Thankfully, they both recovered, and the defendant was apprehended immediately. Today’s sentence holds him accountable for his actions.”
