A wrong victim, then a wrong arrest: new suspect busted in slaying of Brooklyn teen
In a dizzying case of double mistaken identity, the NYPD arrested the wrong brother for the 2019 murder of a Brooklyn teen, the Daily News has learned — that, after the victim was killed because he was mistaken for his own brother.
The twisted tragedy of errors started Feb. 22, 2019, when 15-year-old Samuel Joseph was gunned down outside his Flatbush Ave. apartment.
The shooter had gotten into a fight with Samuel’s older brother two hours earlier. Investigators believe the shooter mistook the teen for his older sibling while looking for revenge.
Ten days later, the NYPD wound up making a similar mistake, arresting Martial C. Amilcar for Samuel’s murder.
It turned out their actual suspect was Martial H. Amilcar — Martial C.’s older brother.
On Thursday, federal authorities arrested Martial H., 26, alleging in an unsealed indictment that he’s a member of the Hyena Crips and that the murder was done in furtherance of racketeering.
Martial C.’s case languished in state court for more than two years before it was dismissed in November 2021, shortly after his defense lawyer provided prosecutors with notice he had an alibi.
“After our office received information from defense counsel, we investigated and proceeded to dismiss the charges,” said Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Federal prosecutors laid out the motive for Samuel’s shooting in court filings on Thursday — about two hours before the shooting, a member of a rival gang, Haitian Loc, stabbed Martial C. in the leg during a fight.
Martial C. was driven to an apartment building, where he limped for safety, while his older brother started making phone calls and planning retaliation. Martial H. and an accomplice found their target’s apartment building and spoke briefly with their rival’s younger sister outside, according to federal prosecutors.
As she walked back into the building, Samuel was heading down a stairwell inside. Martial H. spotted him, pulled out a gun and started shooting, authorities said. His accomplice is yet to be caught.
Samuel moved to Brooklyn from Haiti about five years before his killing, his relatives and neighbors previously told The News. He enjoyed playing sports and would often shoot hoops down the block at a neighborhood YMCA. His parents had arrived five years earlier, making a home in the borough before bringing Samuel to join them.
Samuel’s mother Raymonde Figaro is still reeling from the pain of her loss.
“I never feel good. Really hurts. Really, really, really hurts. I cry,” the 60-year-old said in a brief interview with The News, adding that no one had informed her of the new arrest.
Video captured Martial C. walking into his relative’s apartment building, while a separate camera captured Martial H. doing the shooting.
The younger Amilcar, who was 20 when he was arrested, spent nine months on Rikers Island and another two years in home detention with an ankle bracelet, according to a lawsuit he filed against the city last year.
“Mr. Amilcar’s experiences on Rikers Island were horrific and included being attacked by other inmates and being sprayed by chemical agents by Correction Officers for no reason,” the lawsuit alleges.
He was a half-mile away from the shooting, and the cops and detectives who arrested him either never bothered to review the video showing him limping into his apartment building or they ignored it, the lawsuit alleges. Separate video, of the shooting, shows the two suspects run off with no limp at all, the lawsuit alleges.
Nowhere in the lawsuit do Martial C. or his lawyers name his brother as a suspect in the shooting.
“Plaintiff did not identify the actual shooter because he was not present at the shooting and did not see the shooting,” the lawsuit reads. “In retaliation for not naming the actual shooter, Plaintiff was arrested and prosecuted without any legal justification or probable cause.”
He’s suing the city, NYPD Detectives Erin Pignatelli and Davida Welch, Captain Noema Ioffe and several still-unidentified officers. In the suit, he alleges that he was thrown to the ground and into a metal gate with enough force to knock bricks off a wall.
“As the [unidentified officers] were manhandling Plaintiff, they were laughing and telling him that Plaintiff would have to pay for the damaged bricks,” the lawsuit alleges.
Martial H. is slated to be arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday. Prosecutors are asking for him to be held without bail, noting that he has a lengthy criminal record and is on parole for a 2016 gun case.
“There is no crime more heinous than the killing of an innocent child,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Thursday.
The NYPD did not immediately answer a request for comment on the case.
With Emma Seiwell
