A Brooklyn man known for creating a makeshift aquarium under a leaking fire hydrant on a Bedford-Stuyvesant sidewalk was sentenced Friday for a 2023 shooting that took place just steps from where visitors would later delight in the school of goldfish.
Hajj Malik Lovick was given 12 years in prison for wounding Andre McNeil on June 15, 2023 outside a bar on Tompkins Ave. near Hancock St., around the corner from where Lovick and others would later create the 1½-inch deep aquatic attraction they dubbed “Hood Pond.”
According to a criminal complaint, Lovick, 48, shot at McNeil and a group of bystanders twice, hitting McNeil in the right leg and “generating an entry and exit wound.”
“I ask you to give me a chance, your honor,” pleaded Lovick to Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully before being sentenced on Friday.
Lovick was convicted in December of attempted murder, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment, and criminal use of a firearm, said the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
Lovick encountered the 51-year-old victim outside a bar named Lovers Rock, where the two got into an argument. Lovick, armed with a knife, acted as if he was going to stab McNeil, who was unarmed, said the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
“After the dispute cooled down the defendant left the vicinity of Lover’s Rock and entered a nearby building. Minutes later, according to the evidence, the defendant returned with a gun and fired twice toward the victim and several bystanders,” the Brooklyn DA’s office said in a press release, adding that the shooting was caught on video.
A crowd of at least 10 supporters came to Lovick’s sentencing — which Lovick’s lawyer Robert T. Isdith pointed out to Tully, asking that she consider that Lovick was the founder and daily operator of the Bed-Stuy Aquarium, which was designed “to support the community.”
Tully said that she took Lovick’s standing in the community and the fact that he is the sole caretaker of his son into consideration. But the judge said his “premeditated” decision to get a gun and fire two shots “put that very community in grave danger.”
Lovick added that there was a written statement from the victim saying Lovick did not shoot him.
“That’s not right, that’s not right,” Lovick said.
After the sentence was given, Lovick was led from the courtroom as family and friends cried out “I love you!”
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that senseless acts of gun violence have no place in Brooklyn,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
“The defendant’s decision to open fire over a petty argument not only caused serious harm to the victim but endangered innocent lives in our community. This brazen disregard for safety is unacceptable.”
The summer after the shooting, Lovick — who was out on bail — noticed a leaking fire hydrant on Hancock St. had created a tiny pool in a section of broken sidewalk and imagined fish thriving in the space.
“It was like a condemned Johnny pump. Why not make it better than leaving things that look broken? Why not fix it?” Lovick told the Daily News in August as he sat in a lawn chair guarding the pond.
“[I want to] make it a better place as much as I can,” Lovick said of his neighborhood.
But not everyone was a fan of the aquarium.
Local animal rights advocates and city officials voiced concern the fish would not survive under the hydrant, with some taking matters — and fish — into their own hands, scooping some 35 of the creatures from the tree bed under cover of night.
City Department of Environmental Protection workers shut the hydrant off several times, only to find someone continued to turn it back on after they left, officials said.
In October, the fish were evicted and the broken sidewalk paved over.
On Christmas, a post went up on the Bed-Stuy Aquarium’s Instagram page announcing a coalition of electeds, city agencies and community members had come together to create a new aquarium.
“In January, we will begin planning sessions to realize a permanent aquarium.”
