A man was convicted of murder for gunning down a gang member outside a Queens bodega as the victim’s girlfriend looked on in horror, then fled the country, officials said Wednesday.
The jury deliberated for about two hours before finding Damion Howell, 42, guilty of murder and criminal possession of a weapon for the fatal shooting of Julian Askew after he flirted with Askew’s girlfriend on Aug. 5, 2022, according to Queens prosecutors.
Howell escaped to Great Britain following the shooting and was arrested when he returned to the U.S. nine months later, prosecutors said.
“Damion Howell propositioned a woman at a local bodega and got into an argument with her boyfriend. Thirty minutes later, he returned to the scene with an illegal weapon and shot the man,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. “Victim Julian Askew was left paralyzed in the shooting and suffered for three months before ultimately losing his life to the injuries he sustained in this shooting incident.”
Howell gunned down Askew, 29, outside the bodega on Sutphin Blvd. near Tuskegee Airmen Way in Jamaica shortly after 1 a.m., prosecutors said.
Just a half hour earlier, the defendant made a pass at the victim’s girlfriend inside the deli, where prosecutors said she turned him down before telling her boyfriend that Howell was making her feel uncomfortable.
Howell stormed out of the bodega following an argument with the victim, only to return half an hour later wearing different clothes and immediately approach Askew.
Askew and Howell walked together to the end of the block, where Howell drew a .40 caliber handgun and shot Askew in the torso, cops said. The victim’s girlfriend, who was following the two men, called 911 after witnessing the shooting.
Askew, a member of the Gorilla Stone Nation gang, was rushed to Jamaica Medical Center suffering paralysis from the waist down. He was home recovering when, on Nov. 14, he took a turn for the worse and was rushed to Queens Hospital, where he died.
Askew’s uncle said his nephew was partially paralyzed by the gunshot and that blood clots in his legs led to an aneurysm.
“Everyone around here is walking around with guns,” lamented the uncle, Ramadan Askew, 60, at the time of the victim’s death. “This is obviously a social problem no one wants to address. It was another senseless death.”
Howell fled the scene in a gray sedan driven by an accomplice, police said.
He fled the country, flying to the United Kingdom, 11 days following Askew’s death, only to be captured by authorities waiting for him at JFK when he returned to the city on May 10, 2023.
Howell is due back in court for his sentencing on Sept. 9. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Police said that Howell was previously arrested in a 1999 murder case, though it was not immediately clear what came of that charge. He also has arrests that have been sealed.
Askew had been arrested five times, including twice for robbery and once for weapons possession. Records show he was paroled in March 2021 after doing nearly three years for assault. Before that, he was conditionally released in February 2015 after serving more than a year for attempted robbery.