NYCHA Playground Shooter Gets 25 to Life

Convicted Playground Shooter Jameel Campbell Gets 25 Years to Life

In 2020, the NYPD released dramatic surveillance video of the fatal shooting of Ezequiel Rivera. A Bronx jury convicted Jameel Campbell of the murder. -Photo by NYPD  

Shooting at NYCHA Playground Caught on Surveillance Video

By Dan Gesslein

Bronx Voice 

December 4, 2023 

BRONX - A Bronx man convicted in the dramatic daylight fatal shooting of a man near a NYCHA playground was sentenced to 25 years to life, prosecutors said. The murder was captured on surveillance video. 

Jameel Campbell, 45, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder charges. Campbell was convicted in the murder of 27-year-old Ezequiel Rivera in the courtyard of the Monroe Houses. 

At around 9:15 am on September 13, 2020, Campbell opened fire on Rivera in the courtyard near 1770 Bruckner Boulevard. Prosecutors said Campbell fired seven rounds- two bullets struck Rivera. He would later die of his wounds. 

Jameel Campbell was sentenced to 25 years to life in the fatal shooting. -Photo by NYPD

Following an intense manhunt in which the NYPD released the dramatic video of the shooting, police found Campbell in Atlantic City, NJ. He was arrested and brought back to New York in February 2021.

“The defendant opened fire on a Sunday morning near the Monroe Houses, shooting at the victim seven times, striking him twice,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. "This is another example of a callous shooter, and with its verdict a Bronx jury has decided our community has had enough.”