A 20-year-old man with a lengthy rap sheet has been arrested for allegedly gunning down a Parks Department night watchman at the Douglass Street pool this past August.
Police and prosecutors said that Rammel Bond, a resident of DeKalb Avenue, was charged with murder in the second degree in connection with the August 28 killing of 34-year-old Damien Bowles.
At the time of his death, Bowles was a seasonal night watchman for the Parks Department, city officials said.
He was reportedly guarding the pool inside the Thomas Greene Playground, which is bounded by Third Avenue and Degraw, Nevins and Douglass streets, when Bond allegedly opened fire, hitting him in the neck.
Bowles died of his injuries at Long Island College Hospital.
Parks Department employees said that Bowles, a resident of Bedford-Stuyvesant, had been a seasonal night watchman with the city for five years.
While police initially described the shooting as taking place during an argument – possibly with a stranger – Bowles’ distraught family believed that the killer targeted the 38-year-old.
“This guy supposedly climbed up an eight- to 10-foot fence surrounding the pool area, came from the side, went towards my brother, and my brother said, “Who you? and he shot my brother,” Lushana Quamina, Bowles sister, told this paper in the weeks following the night watchman’s death. “I believe this was planned. Someone knew what was going to take place. This is just ridiculous. They came directly to my brother.”
According to a complaint filed with the Kings County District Attorney’s office, a witness led detectives from the 78th Precinct to Bond. While the pool was closed at the time of the 10 p.m. slaying, several Parks Department employees and a civilian were in and around the pool when the gunshot sounded.
Bond was apprehended on September 29 – almost a full month after the killing.
He was remanded to custody at arraignment, said prosecutors, who are currently bringing their case against him to the grand jury.
Officials did not disclose just what led Bond to shoot Bowles.
Prosecutors said that before his recent move to DeKalb Avenue, Bond lived on Nevins Street – about three blocks from the Thomas Greene Playground.
It’s possible that Bond knew Bowles from his night watch duties at the Douglass Street pool, officials said.
But Bond’s time in the neighborhood was interspersed with repeated prison stays.
Despite his young age, prosecutors said that Bond had been arrested nine times in Brooklyn since he was 16 years old.
Most of those offenses were drug related, a Kings County District Attorney spokesman said, adding that he was awaiting his next court date on one of these cases when he was arrested for Bowles’ murder.
— with Stephen Witt
