Bushwick Beheading Suspect Charged In Other Bushwick Murder: Brooklyn DA

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — The man who is under indictment for the 2004 murder of Bushwick teenager Sharabia Thomas was arrested on Wednesday in connection with another gruesome Bushwick murder that happened exactly a year later, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office said. Kwauhuru Govan, 38, faces a second-degree murder charge in connection with the 2005 slaughter and beheading of 19-year-old Rashawn Brazell, according to the Brooklyn DA's office.

Govan was screaming in Brooklyn court on Wednesday as he was carried into the court by more than a dozen officers, yelling that he had been framed, the New York Daily News reported.

"Is this what America has come to? Is this what President Trump will allow?" Govan yelled.

Govan was arrested in November and charged with the murder and kidnapping of 17-year-old Thomas in Bushwick in February 2004. High-schooler Thomas left her house one morning in February, and she never came back. Her naked, dead body was found inside two laundry bags later that day. A year later, Brazell's body was found dismembered in a bloody bag on the A subway line, cops said. Brazell's head was never recovered.

Soon after Govan was arrested in connection with Thomas' murder, investigators found that Govan had lived across the street from Brazell, and they started examining him as a potential suspect in the Brazell case, a law enforcement source told NBC News. Investigators now believe the bloody bag found at the Brazell crime scene was Govan's, the source said.

A spokesperson from the Brooklyn DA's office said the office is not releasing or confirming any evidence that connects Govan with the Brazell case at this time.

The NYPD Cold Case Squad said it solved the Thomas case based on DNA evidence recovered from Thomas' fingernails that hadn't been tested before. The DNA results came up with Govan as a match, the Brooklyn DA's office said. Govan was already in a national database after he was arrested in Florida in 2014, and he was taken to Brooklyn to be tried for Thomas' murder, a case that is still pending, the Brooklyn DA's office said.

Govan is due back in court on Thursday for an arraignment.

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