Press Release
DISTRICT ATTORNEY KATZ APPEALS TO PUBLIC FOR INFORMATION ABOUT SHOOTING DEATHS OF BROTHERS
Brothers Shawn and Neshawn Plummer were gunned down three years and a few blocks apart in Far Rockaway, the innocent, unintended victims of the gun violence that is a national plague.
On July 13, 2012, 18-year-old Shawn Plummer was hit by gunfire intended for someone else as he stood on Seagirt Avenue. Detectives found no witnesses willing to testify against a probable suspect.
Three years later, during a visit to his old neighborhood, 16-year-old Neshawn Plummer, standing only yards away from where his brother died, was fatally hit during an exchange of gunfire between warring gang factions. Despite video of the shooting and a sketch released by investigators, the individuals responsible for this cold-blooded murder have evaded justice.
District Attorney Melinda Katz said: “Any mother’s worst nightmare is to survive a child. To lose that child to violence brings unimaginable pain. To not know who committed the crime compounds the suffering; and to lose your two youngest children that way leaves a wound far too deep for time to ever heal. My heart goes out to Sharon Plummer. For her sake, I urge anyone with information that could help us find her sons’ killers to contact authorities.”
Investigators established a hotline, at 1-800-577-TIPS, and website, crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, for confidential information from the public.
The Cold Case Unit of the Queens District Attorney’s Office is a specialized unit that investigates and solves the borough’s oldest and most challenging unsolved homicide cases using forensic technology and other advanced investigative methods. The first-of-its-kind unit works closely with the New York Police Department’s Cold Case and Homicide Squads.
In 2021, the Cold Case Unit garnered international attention for resolving the 46-year-old mystery of the death of WWI veteran George Clarence Seitz. Using cutting-edge forensic genetic genealogy and other investigative methods, the responsible killer was identified and arrested. He eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.