Brooklyn Man Gets 20 Years For Fatal Farragut Houses Shooting: DA

DOWNTOWN, BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn man who ambushed and shot a local college student five times will spend at least 20 years in jail, prosecutors announced.

Tavon Diaz, 24, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years to life in prison for the 2017 killing of 27-year-old Melquian Anderson outside the Farragut Houses. He had been convicted of second-degree murder earlier this month.

Prosecutors said the sentencing will hopefully bring some relief to family members of Anderson, who was studying at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and had been expecting a baby daughter with his girlfriend at the time he was killed.

“This defendant has now been held accountable for the senseless and tragic murder of Melquian Anderson...a young man in the prime of his life, who had everything to live for and who was cherished by his loved ones," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "I hope today’s sentencing brings them a small sense of solace.”

Diaz was arrested a month after the October 25, 2017 shooting after three witnesses identified him and investigators saw him on surveillance video carrying a handgun right before the murder, prosecutors said.

He had been outside the Farragut Houses 190 York St. building when he spotted Anderson walking up the block around 8:45 p.m., prosecutors said. Diaz went inside the building and grabbed a loaded 9 millimeter semiautomatic handgun.

He ambushed Anderson as he passed the front of the building and shot him from behind, prosecutors said. When Anderson fell to the ground, Diaz ran up closer and shot six more times, hitting Anderson four times, prosecutors said.