Brooklyn man sentenced to 18 years for fatal shooting during dice game robbery at house party

October 25, 2024 Robert Abruzzese, Courthouse Editor

The killer attended the party where guests were playing a dice game, forcing his way inside and attempting to rob the partygoers at gunpoint. Photo: Studio KIVI/Adobe Stock

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A dice game turned deadly at a Brooklyn house party, leading to a prison sentence for one man and a tragic loss for another.

Ahmed Morrison, 22, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Thursday for fatally shooting 48-year-old Kenneth Mark during an attempted robbery in 2020. Morrison pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in connection with the killing, which occurred after he and an accomplice returned to the party armed and wearing ski masks.

“This defendant’s actions demonstrate the callousness and disregard for life that too often accompanies gun violence, and today’s sentence sends a strong message that those who terrorize our communities will be held fully accountable,” District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully, who presided over the case, handed down Morrison’s 18-year sentence along with five years of post-release supervision. Tully had also sentenced Howell, who also pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, to 17 years earlier this year.

32 Pulaski Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where Kenneth Mark was fatally shot during an attempted robbery at a house party in February 2020. Screenshot via Google Street View

According to prosecutors, Morrison and co-defendant Unique Howell, 20, initially attended the party at Mark’s Pulaski Street apartment on February 6, 2020, where guests were playing a dice game. The pair left but returned later, forced their way inside, and attempted to rob the partygoers at gunpoint. When Mark resisted, Morrison fired two shots, hitting him in the abdomen and chest. Mark later died at Kings County Hospital.

Morrison and Howell fled the scene, but investigators linked them to the crime through Morrison’s fingerprints and a traffic summons found in the getaway vehicle. Morrison was arrested in May 2020.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorneys Christopher Mirabella and Kathleen Simpson.