Feds: Murder charge in 2007 drive-by shooting in North Bellport

Federal investigators say they have solved a decade-old gang-related slaying of a North Bellport teenager who was shot while leaving a “Night Out Against Crime” rally at a local park.

Trendell Walker, 29, of Patchogue, identified as a member of the Bloods street gang, was charged Friday with murder in the slaying of Alvin Brothers, 15, in an indictment filed in federal court in Central Islip.

Brothers was shot shortly before midnight on Aug. 7, 2007, as he was leaving the rally with five or six other youths. Shortly before the shooting, the youths exchanged words with an unidentified man in a silver four-door vehicle, authorities said.

Police said the man returned and in a drive-by attack fired 10 shots at the group, striking Brothers twice in the back. The shooting was eight blocks from the victim’s home.

The nature of the original verbal exchange was not explained by authorities.

Walker, who investigators say is known by the street name “Live Wire,” has been in jail since 2016 awaiting trial on federal charges of assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with a May 27, 2016, shooting of a person identified in court papers only as John Doe, authorities said.

A number of charges related to the distribution of cocaine, heroin and PCP, and the use of a firearm in drug distribution, are also pending against Walker, according to court records.

The circumstances of the John Doe shooting were not detailed in the indictment.

Walker’s attorney, Terrence Buckley of Islandia, declined to comment Saturday.

Sources credited the FBI’s Long Island Gang Task Force, Suffolk County homicide detectives and the federal department of Homeland Security with jointly cracking the case, but did not disclose how their investigation led to Walker.

Walker is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Central Islip on a superseding indictment that combines the murder charges, including use of a firearm related to a murder, with the previous charges.

At the time of the 2007 shooting, Kamau Reid, a teenage friend of Brothers who was at the scene, told Newsday that after the burst of gunfire, “I got up and saw him fall down.”

Brothers blinked his eyes and said: “I want my mom,” Reid recalled. “His eyes rolled back in his head and he was gone.”

Brothers’ mother, Christine Brame, who has been active in anti-crime efforts in the community, could not be reached for comment Saturday.

After her son’s slaying, she called for the public’s help in solving the crime.

“They just left him for dead in the street,” she said. “Please speak up and tell what happened.”

By Robert E. Kessler

Robert.Kessler@newsday.com

Bob Kessler covers federal law, including law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, IRS and ATF, as well as the federal courts.