VIDEO: Senator Witnesses Brooklyn Shooting

BROWNSVILLE, BROOKLYN — A state senator visiting the neighborhood Wednesday to push an initiative that would "provide a safe haven for kids after school" witnessed a young man shot dead right in front of his eyes.

State Sen. Jesse Hamilton of New York's 20th District — covering Brownsville, Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, Prospect-Lefferts Gardens and parts of Gowanus and Sunset Park — was attending a meeting at the Howard Houses in Brownsville when he witnessed the murder of local 28-year-old Rysheen Ervin, a resident of the public housing project.

"A young man was shot right in front of the building where we were having a stakeholders meeting," Hamilton said in a panicked Facebook video recorded at the crime scene. "This is unreal. I've never seen a young man actually shot and die before my eyes. We've been here 10 minutes already, there's no ambulance, this young man is dead."

Police said they responded to a 911 call at 3:11 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22, of a shooting outside of 80 Osborn St. When they arrived, they said they found Ervin "unresponsive with multiple gun shots to the torso."

Emergency responders transported Ervin to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to the New York City Police Department.

Hamilton was attending a meeting Wednesday regarding an after-school program called "The Campus," which aims to teach local children about technology and entrepreneurship, helping guide them away from the violence which plagues the neighborhood.

"Our first Campus Stakeholders Meeting started with a shooting and unfortunately ended with a murder," Hamilton said in a statement posted Thursday morning on his Facebook page. "The resident was fatally shot in close proximity to a school, library and daycare."

There had been no arrests made in Ervin's murder by Thursday afternoon. "The investigation is ongoing," police said.

Ervin was murdered in the NYPD's 73rd Precinct, which covers most of the Brownsville and Ocean Hill neighborhoods. According to official police statistics, through mid-September, shootings in the 73rd were up 14 percent — and the number of shooting victims up 11 percent — compared to the same time period last year.