Woman arrested in shooting death at Brooklyn birthday party as dancehall community mourns

A woman has been arrested for the fatal shooting of a woman celebrating at a birthday party in Brooklyn — a death mourned by the borough’s Jamaican dancehall community — police said Thursday.

Deonne Kirkland, 44, has been arrested for last month’s slaying of Tarcia Lysius, cops said.

Lysius, also 44, was shot at the event space called Hearts of Love on Liberty Ave. near Williams Ave. in East New York after getting into a wild fight with Kirkland around 5:10 a.m. on Aug. 28, cops said.

Medics rushed Lysius — the daughter of the late popular dancehall promoter Elaine “Frenchie” Robinson — to Brookdale University Hospital, but she could not be saved.

“Everybody knew and loved her mom just like everybody knows and loves her,” recording artist Courtney Gibbs told the Daily News. “It’s very damaging for the dancehall community in Brooklyn, and hopefully as a community we can work together.”

Two videos spliced together and posted on Facebook show the final moments of Lysius’s life.

In the first, Lysius is seen outside Hearts of Love on the corner, wearing a long dress and eating from a container, while a woman in a white jumpsuit walks onto the sidewalk. Lysius walks away and the woman in white appears to follow her.

Lysius steps a few feet away again and a moment later, the woman in white takes a last puff off her cigarette and flicks it in Lysius’ direction, where it lands at her feet.

Lysius, who was known as “Tanney Frenchie,” bends, picks it up, and immediately heads back into Hearts of Love. She reemerges with a thick glass bottle, which she bashes on the ground three times in an apparent attempt to break it.

“Tanney, Tanney, Tanney, don’t even worry,” a woman’s voice is heard saying.

“She was not that person that you can push her buttons. She wasn’t going to take it,” Lysius’ colleague Andre Murray remarked to The News. “She is not a quiet person, she’s kind of fiery.”

The video also shows the interior wall of Hearts of Love and picks up the sounds of objects being knocked over or breaking.

The screen goes black and only muffled noises are heard in the background until another man is heard saying, “Get help! Get help!”

The second video appears to be surveillance footage from inside Hearts of Love. In it, Lysius falls to the ground and stops moving, while the other woman stands over her for a few seconds before bending to grab something off the ground and running off.

Lysius’ mother died of cancer earlier this year. The Jamaican press extensively reported on the August slaying.

The NYPD’s warrant squad arrested Kirkland on Thursday and charged her with murder at the 75th Precinct stationhouse, police said.

“I am happy, but this is what I want,” said Lysius’s cousin, Odette Ritchie. “I want to see her and see that she is really charged.”

Lysius lived in East New York, about a mile and a half from where she was killed.

Her youngest child, 19-year-old Junior Walker, had recently reunited with his mother after nine years of living in Jamaica.

“It’s taken a toll on us, her kids, especially her last son,” said Ritchie, tearing up. “I’m really upset because her son is going through so much.”

Lysius also had two daughters, said family members.

“She’s been a club promoter for a long time, ever since she came from Jamaica, she was into it,” neighbor Carl Little, 73, told the Daily News. “She and her mom would dance and promote things together.”

Kirkland’s arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court was pending Thursday evening.