Gangbanger wanted for slaying of Brooklyn teen nabbed by NYPD in Georgia
A paroled gangbanger accused of gunning down a Brooklyn teen in March was taken into custody in Georgia by NYPD detectives, police said Saturday.
Culture Bermudez, 27, was brought back from Clayton County on Friday and charged in the March 13 slaying of 17-year-old Bryan Sanon, cops said.
Sanon had left home to go for a walk with friends when a gunman hopped out of the back seat of a silver sedan and opened fire on the group on E. 82nd St. near Farragut Road just after 10 a.m. that day. The teen died at the scene.
Cops identified Bermudez as a suspect following a brief investigation but he’d already fled the state, police said.
Bermudez, a member of the Hood Starz street gang, served six years in prison for shooting a rival at the Marcus Garvey Houses in Brownsville in 2011. He was released in 2017 and was on parole until 2022, according to court records.
On the day her son died, Juliana Gopie-Sanon was at a doctor’s appointment when she saw an alert on Citizen –– an app that sends out notifications of reports of nearby crimes — that a teen had been shot near her home. She never imagined it would be her child.
“I didn’t expect that I would come back and not see my son,” a heartbroken Gopie-Sanon told reporters shortly after Bryan’s death. “I just want to know why.”
“What did he really do to deserve this? My baby — I only have one son,” she cried.
When the mom returned to the neighborhood, she found her son still sprawled out dead on the sidewalk.
“The last thing I saw of my son is him lying down in a crouched position covered in the white blanket on the road. I just wanted to hold him,” she told The News. “I just wish to see my son right now. I just want to see him and hold him.”
In the barrage of bullets that killed Sanon, a 20-year-old friend was shot in the face and a 19-year-old pal was grazed in both legs, police said. Both were expected to recover.
It was not immediately clear why Sanon and his friends were targeted and if Bermudez was the shooter or the driver. Cops charged him with murder, attempted murder and assault. His arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending Saturday.
An accomplice, Naquan Pruitt, 26, of Levittown, Penn., was arrested in July and is being held on murder and attempted murder charges, according to court documents.