Hajj Lovick, co-founder of Bed-stuy aquarium sentenced to 12 years for attempted murder of man after launching community initiative one year after late night gun violence episode.
The man who helped create the Bed-Stuy fire hydrant pond that became a beloved neighborhood attraction and launching his status as a ‘neighborhood icon’ was on Friday sentenced to 12 years in prison for shooting a man following an altercation at a nearby local bar months earlier.
Hajj Lovick, 48, of Bed-stuy, Brooklyn was convicted after trial last month for shooting a man in the leg outside a Bed-Stuy bar in the summer of 2023. On Jan. 3, he was sentenced in Brooklyn Supreme Court to 12 years in prison and five years of probation for attempted murder, attempted assault, assault, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a firearm.
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Lovick and the victim, a 51-year-old man, became embroiled in a heated verbal argument outside Lover’s Rock bar on Tompkins Avenue shortly before 2 a.m. on June 15, 2023. During the squabble, Lovick pulled out a knife and lunged toward the unarmed victim as if to stab him.
An attempt to re-deem public perception?
Eventually, the two men desisted, only for Lovick to return to the street with a gun and firing twice toward the victim and a crowd of bystanders, striking the 51-year-old man once in the shin. The entire altercation was captured on surveillance video, according to the DA.
Lovick fled the scene, leaving his knife, which was later recovered by police, at the scene. The victim was taken to NYC Health+Hospitals/Kings County, where he was treated and released.
Police arrested Lovick on June 19, 2023. He was released on bail sometime after July 24, 2023, court records show.
Last summer, about a year after the shooting, Lovick and a few of his neighbors started the ‘Bed-Stuy Aquarium,’ a makeshift goldfish pond in a sidewalk pit beside a leaky fire hydrant near the corner of Hancock Street and Tompkins Avenue — ironically steps from Lover’s Rock bar, where the shooting occurred months earlier.
Conjecture existed that the man had sought to use the hydrant leak as a way to warm up to prosecutors in the hope that his ‘community’ good deeds would be seen favourably by the court. Spoiler- they weren’t.
Little love lost for Bed-stuy acquarium co-founder
The Aquarium proved controversial — many locals loved it and felt it brought the community together. Others said that keeping fish in a few inches of unfiltered, unheated water was akin to animal abuse. In October, the FDNY inspected the hydrant and fixed the leak, cutting off water to the fish. A few days later, the pond was paved over — but Lovick and his collaborators quickly pivoted and re-installed a makeshift tank in the same tree pit.
In court, Lovick and his attorney asked the court for leniency in sentencing and cited the Bed-Stuy Aquarium among Lovick’s ties to the community, according to the New York Post, but the judge and an assistant district attorney were not impressed.
‘Today’s sentence sends a clear message that senseless acts of gun violence have no place in Brooklyn,’ said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, in a statement. ‘The defendant’s decision to open fire over a petty argument not only caused serious harm to the victim but endangered innocent lives in our community. This brazen disregard for safety is unacceptable.’
Nearly two dozen supporters — including the aquarium’s co-creator Je-Quan Irving — were in the audience for Lovick’s sentencing, the nypost reported.
‘I was going to have a community. I stopped drugs from going on the corner and they want to give me 15 years,’ Lovick said during the hearing. ‘Where is the trust at? There’s no trust.’
The Aquarium was closed and the fish relocated in late December due to freezing temperatures. On Dec. 25, the Bed-Stuy Aquarium said on Instagram that it had convened a ‘working group’ with city agencies and elected officials to come up with a plan to create an ‘upgraded, temporary aquarium,’ and hoped to start working toward a permanent aquarium this month. According to the Bed-Stuy Aquarium FAQ, the project has at least three backers aside from Lovick.
