Jun. 22, 2023 By Bill Parry
Far Rockaway grandmother Suzette Olin was sentenced to 23 years in prison on June 21 for the “cold-blooded” shooting death of Shaka Ifil — her daughter’s boyfriend and the father of her grandchild — in his Woodhaven home in July 2020.
Olin, 68, of Redfern Avenue, was convicted by a jury in Queens Supreme Court on March 31 of manslaughter in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.
According to the trial testimony, on the afternoon of July 26, 2020, Ifil was in the home he shared with Olin’s daughter on 91st Avenue near 85th Street in Woodhaven at around 2 p.m., when an upstairs neighbor heard a commotion in his apartment, walked downstairs and found his door open. Ifil was lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to his back.
The neighbor called 911 and when police from the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill arrived, the 40-year-old Ifil told them he was dying and that his girlfriend’s mother shot him. EMS rushed Ifil to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead hours later. The bullet hit several major organs and blood vessels.
Security camera video showed a woman who appeared to be smoking a cigarette get out of an Access-A-Ride car service vehicle near Ifil’s home at about 1:51 p.m. on July 26, 2020, and then leave the home at 2:01 p.m., according to prosecutors. The woman was later identified as Olin and a DNA test of a cigarette butt found in the apartment was linked to Olin.
An investigation revealed that three days before the shooting, Olin’s daughter filed a domestic incident report with the police, alleging Ifil broke a door in their apartment. Police responded and body camera footage showed the broken door. The girlfriend did not appear to be injured.
Olin was arrested on Sept. 18, 2020.
“Gun violence will never be tolerated,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “This defendant will now serve a long prison sentence for her actions.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Usher sentenced Olin to 23 years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.