An 18-year-old lured out through Facebook messages and gunned down while running for his life. A Brooklyn jury calls it murder. Now the shooter will likely spend decades behind bars.
On Friday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Hecht sentenced 25-year-old Ricardo Dash of Bedford-Stuyvesant to 22 years to life in prison for the killing of Shaheem Bascom in East New York, after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder on December 10, 2025, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called the shooting a “cold-blooded execution of an unarmed teenager” and said the prison term holds Dash accountable, while offering condolences to Bascom’s family.
Prosecutors told jurors that Bascom, 18, had been messaging on Facebook Messenger with a 16-year-old he knew and was drawn into meeting near 965 Hegeman Avenue on May 10, 2021, as reported by Shore News Network. According to trial testimony and evidence, members of the 8 Trey Crips planned to rob and assault Bascom. When he tried to get away, a co-defendant hit him, and prosecutors said Dash chased after him and fired, hitting Bascom in the back.
Co-defendants and plea deals
Two co-defendants had already pleaded out before Dash’s sentencing, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said Deshawn Holder admitted to second-degree gang assault and received a sentence of three-and-a-half years in prison, plus five years of post-release supervision. Sarina Davis pleaded guilty in July 2025 to second-degree attempted gang assault and was sentenced to six months in jail and five years of supervision once she is released.
Fugitive arrest and social posts
After the killing, prosecutors said Dash mocked the shooting in multiple Facebook posts, then left New York and stayed on the run for seven months. He was arrested in Henry County, Georgia, in December 2021 by NYPD investigators working with U.S. Marshals, according to Shore News Network.
Prosecutors said another suspect in the case has not been caught. The case involving the 16-year-old who allegedly helped lure Bascom was moved to family court.
What comes next
Prosecutors say the lengthy prison term takes a dangerous offender off the street, but it does not answer the larger questions for Bascom’s family and neighbors about how a social media chat can spiral into a deadly setup. The case was handled by the DA’s Homicide Bureau and Red Zone Trial Bureau, which prosecutors said relied on digital evidence and traditional detective work to secure the conviction.
