Crime & Safety
Ex-Girlfriend Denied Bail For Park Slope Killing: Docs
Latisha Bell walked into the precinct with a gun still in her bag hours after shooting her ex-girlfriend Nichelle Thomas, officials say.

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — The woman who shot her ex-girlfriend point blank on the street in Park Slope on Wednesday walked into the precinct hours later with the gun still in her bag, according to court records.
Latisha Bell, 38, turned herself into police at the 78th Precinct the same afternoon she walked up behind Nichelle Thomas near a deli on Fourth Avenue and St. Marks Place and shot her in the head, according to police and court papers.
"I am turning myself in for the homicide, the gun is inside the bag," Bell told an officer, according to the papers.
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"I need to talk to the homicide detective, I did the shooting," she said to another.
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Bell, who according to the Daily News was Thomas' ex-girlfriend, was charged with second-degree murder and two criminal possession of a weapon charges, the records show. She was arraigned Thursday and denied bail.
Her arrest came after cops found surveillance video that showed the moment Bell, rushing past a bystander, came up to Thomas and pulled out a gun as she reached for the deli door. Thomas immediately fell to the ground, according to court papers.
The video can be seen in this report by the Daily News.
Thomas was rushed to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where she died, police said.
Neighbors told the News that she and Thomas, who lived a few blocks from the deli, had lived together for years before a falling out.
"...They were always fighting," the neighbor said. "They had a big falling out about three years ago and she left.”
Thomas, a mother of two, was remembered by neighbors and friends as a "very nice lady" who often walked her dogs in the neighborhood, they told the News.
The shooting is the first homicide this year in Park Slope's 78th Precinct, where gun violence is much rarer than other parts of the borough.
The only other shooting in 2021, on Nevins Street in March, had no injuries.
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