August 10, 2023
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today that a Mount Vernon man was sentenced to 25 years in state prison for the fatal shooting of 41-year-old Mount Vernon resident Kwasi Kirton.
DA Rocah said: "A dangerous offender who opened fire on a defenseless man is now off our streets. We hope today’s sentence brings some measure of justice for Kwasi Kirton’s family."
The defendant, Heyward Bradshaw, pleaded guilty on May 19 to Manslaughter in the First Degree, a felony. He will be subject to five years of post-release supervision.
On March 4, 2022, at approximately 11:33 p.m., the defendant engaged in a verbal dispute with the victim, whom he knew, inside a bodega. The dispute spilled outside where the defendant chased the victim and shot at him nine times using a 9mm semi-automatic pistol. The defendant first fired once from the sidewalk, then fired four shots on East 3rd Street in Mount Vernon. After the victim fell to the ground, the defendant ran up to him and shot him four more times before fleeing inside a nearby apartment building and then to Connecticut. The incident was captured on surveillance video.
The victim, who was struck seven times in the chest, neck, thigh, shoulder and forearm, was transported to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
The Mount Vernon Police Department located and arrested the defendant at an apartment in the Bronx on March 6, 2022, following an investigation with the FBI’s Westchester Safe Streets Task Force. With assistance from the FBI, police executed a search warrant and recovered the gun used during the incident.
The Westchester County Department of Public Safety, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety’s Real Time Crime Center and the Stamford Police Department assisted with the investigation.
The case was before Judge George Fufidio in Westchester County Court, and was prosecuted by Homicide Bureau Chief Lana Hochheiser and Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Z. Marcus.
Anna Young, Public Information Officer
(914) 995-6551
ayoung@westchesterda.net
