Carroll Gardens and East Flatbush shootings leave 2 dead over weekend, NYPD says

A potential robbery victim and a dollar-van driver were killed in separate shootings in Brooklyn over the weekend, according to police, who said they were still searching for suspects in both incidents on Monday.

NYPD officials said 23-year-old Jordan Dillard was shot several times in his torso around 2:45 a.m. on Saturday inside Carroll Park between Court and Smith streets in Carroll Gardens.

First responders who arrived at the scene took Dillard to NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, according to officials.

Police said the shooting appeared to have stemmed from an attempted robbery, but they did not have any description of a possible suspect.

Two of Dillard’s sisters said on Monday at the apartment he shared with his family at NYCHA’s Red Hook Houses that they felt his shooting was a setup.

Brandy Dillard, his older sister, said he had been partying with friends on Saturday night before someone might have lured him into the park about a mile from his home.

“If you had a problem, or if you needed some food, anything, he would give you his last little bit of change,” said Brandy Dillard, who noted that Jordan was one of nine siblings.

He was planning on getting his GED and was considering joining the military, according to his sisters, who said he had worked for the Red Hook Initiative, a community-based nonprofit.

On Sunday, just before 1 p.m. police responded to Utica Avenue near Linden Boulevard in East Flatbush and found 25-year-old Johanci Chapman shot in his arm behind the wheel of a dollar van, according to officials.

Police said Chapman had been arguing with another dollar-van driver, who pulled out a gun and fired. Chapman was taken to Kings County Hospital, where he died of his injuries.

The other driver fled in his van, and the NYPD said it was still looking for him on Monday.

Chapman lived about a half-mile from where he was shot, according to police, but no one answered the door when a reporter visited on Monday morning.

The incidents happened in neighborhoods with vastly different amounts of gun violence, police data shows.

According to Gothamist’s analysis of NYPD reports, nine people were shot and killed last year in the department’s 67th Precinct, which encompasses East Flatbush. There was not a single fatal shooting in 2024 in the NYPD’s 76th Precinct, which includes Carroll Gardens.

This is a developing story based on information from police and has been updated.