A Nigerian aspiring fashion designer was fatally sh0t in the head at a Brooklyn nightclub after a tussle with a drunk man who reportedly gr0ped his girlfriend.
Sheriff Shittu, 30, was k!lled when a gunman opened fire inside Quilox Restaurant and Lounge in East Flatbush on Church Ave. near 95th St. at about 4:25 a.m. Saturday, cops said.
According to NYDailyNews, Shittu was accompanied to the club by his younger brother, Fawaz Shittu, to celebrate a friend’s birthday a day before their mother was due to arrive for a visit from Nigeria.
“I was screaming his name,” Fawaz said, recalling the aftermath of the shooting that killed his brother. “I was trying to wake him up.”
Sheriff got into a tussle with his k!ller after the stranger started drunkenly groping women, including the victim’s girlfriend, according to Fawaz.
The brothers left the club just 45 minutes after arriving, turned off by the disturbance, the brother said. But they returned minutes later after realizing Sheriff had left his cell phone behind.
When they returned, the drunk was being escorted out, and the club’s owner tried to convince the brothers to stay, Fawaz said.
“The owner was saying, ‘Don’t mind that person — he’s a crazy guy’,” Fawaz recounted. “A few seconds later, I heard ‘pow,’ and I looked down, and I saw my brother.”
A bartender rushed to perform CPR on Sheriff, who lay motionless on the floor, Fawaz said.
The gunman ran off and has not been caught.
“He was able to escape,” Fawaz said of the killer. “I don’t know how that happened or how he got the gun in the club. Security didn’t do its job. They didn’t search. You’re supposed to check people and their bags.”
Medics rushed Sheriff to Brookdale University Hospital, where he later d!ed, police said. But the victim’s family has kept him on life support, hoping for a miracle.
“He has been pronounced dead, but we’re still hoping,” said Salem Shittu, 24, another of the victim’s brothers. “We’re holding out with our faith in God.”
“He was a very sweet person, very outgoing,” Salem added. “He was protective of his family, his friends and his loved ones.”
The victim was shot the day before his 60-year-old mother, Foluke Shittu, arrived on a preplanned trip to visit her sons’ home in Far Rockaway, Queens. She learned of Sheriff’s fate only after her plane touched down.
“My son was a very kind person,” Foluke said. “I love him. We spoke on Friday, and I arrived on Sunday. That’s when they told me.”
Sheriff immigrated to the United States from Nigeria in 2018. He worked as a security guard while creating his own fledgling fashion label, called Riff Ent.
“We’re going to keep pushing his brand,” said his brother Salem. “We’re just trying make a way for one another.”
Just as the family hopes God will restore life to Sheriff, they’re praying his killer is brought to justice.
“We want him to get life in prison, the maximum sentence,” said Salem. “If there’s a death penalty in New York, use that.”
