Killers apparently followed the victims from Brooklyn club to Queens after fight and fired 63 shots from an AK-47 into their vehicle.
BY MATTHEW LYSIAK , IRVING DEJOHN AND LARRY MCSHANE / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS—-
ANTHONY DELMUNDO FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Police investigate the scene where 3 people were shot dead in Queens.
Enraged gunmen — one of them packing an AK-47 — stalked and executed three men on a Queens street in a hail of bullets that friends say was sparked by a nightclub glance at the wrong woman.
The killers sprayed 63 shots around 5 a.m. Saturday as the victims sat in a double-parked Jeep Grand Cherokee — unaware the shooters were closing in, police said.
“Someone followed (them) from the club,” said an emotional Katie Bussereth, sister of the slain driver, Jaime Bussereth. “They didn’t want any money. They just wanted death.”
The three men died from multiple bullet wounds in a scene reminiscent of an old-school mob hit. The trio had stopped to drop off a friend, who somehow survived the gunfire on 144th St. at 85th Ave. in Jamaica.
The heavy firepower used has investigators looking at whether drugs motivated the gory killings.
One of the victims was shot right out of his shoes, with his barefoot body left on the street. A fourth man was wounded in the blizzard of assault rifle bullets. Investigators, who also found 9-mm. shell casings at the scene, believe there were at least two shooters.
One of the victims had not been identified by early Sunday. The other two victims were Bussereth, 33, a father of three, and Jamaican-born Jason Wood, 27, who has a 4-year-old son in his homeland.
A friend of the victims said the brutal slayings were caused by a “fight over a girl” at the Albany Manor nightclub in Brooklyn earlier in the evening.
“It was over a girl, over a look,” the friend said. “They were followed from the club and shot.”
Two of the dead men were inside the vehicle, while the third was found on the ground near the rear passenger door.
Cops were summoned to the scene by a 911 call after the predawn stillness was broken by gunfire.
The unidentified killers apparently followed Bussereth’s Jeep on the 11-mile trip from the club to the shooting scene, where the victim double-parked, cops said.
The gunfire erupted and ended in a matter of seconds.
“It sounded like a firecracker,” said Duane Roberts, 62, who heard the barrage. “It was a lot of shots. It was real quick. Two minutes later, the police were here.”
Bussereth, of Howard Beach, left behind twin 2-year-olds and an 11-year-old, according to a friend. His sister said the slain man was devoted to his kids.
“Jaime was a good father,” said Katie Bussereth. “He loved his kids more than anything. He was always there for his kids. Everyone is so distraught.”
ANTHONY DELMUNDO FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Family and friends look on as police investigate scene of triple slaying in Queens.
A family friend agreed, noting that the victim “took care of everyone. . . . He was a good, good father.”
Jason Wood’s father, Lenworth Wood, said his son, who worked as a salesman, was headed with friends to a Saturday night party in Brooklyn.
“He’s a good kid to me,” the dad said.
The shooting started after Bussereth pulled over to drop off the man who survived the shooting, friends said. His name and condition were not released Saturday.
The shooters fled, and police had made no arrests in the shocking murders.
The killings came at the end of a long, violent night when seven people were killed and 21 others wounded across the city.
Through last Sunday, NYPD stats show 672 shooting incidents reported in 2012 — a 10.9% spike from the 606 reported across the same time last year. There were 802 shooting victims this year, compared with 743 in 2011 — a 7.9% spike.
But murders are down to 194 this year, a 17.4% drop from 2011.
Katie Bussereth was stunned by word that her brother was killed with an assault weapon on a street in Queens.
“How are there AK-47s on the street?” she asked. “Are we living in a war zone?”
With Joe Kemp and Rocco Parascandola
mlysiak@nydailynews.com
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