Investigators want to question the longtime boyfriend of a 24-year-old Brooklyn woman whom authorities say he stalked for months before she was found Wednesday with a gunshot wound to the head.
Police were called to a home on Strauss Street at about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday for a woman shot, and there found 24-year-old Kazon Raoul unconscious and unresponsive in the basement. She was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Neighbors said Raoul only lived on Strauss Street for a few months, and kept to herself. But people on the block could hear loud arguments with a man described as her boyfriend.
"I said, if it was me, I would call 911 with the conversations they were having," said neighbor Ruth Springer, who said Raoul and her boyfriend argued "heatedly."
That longtime boyfriend, Bernsley Barthelemy, is being sought by police for questioning. Authorities said he stalked Raoul for months and violated orders of protection four times.
District Attorney Charles Hynes said even though Barthelemy allegedly made threatening phone calls to Raoul, a legal loophole that classified such calls as misdemeanors made it difficult for her to do much legally.
After three threatening calls, Barthelemy allegedly stalked Raoul at her home, which is a felony. She went back to court again, apparently trying to get even more protection.
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"Anybody who is seeking an order of protection who gets shot to death -- there are not words in my vocabulary to describe the horrendous experience that produces," said Hynes.
Springer said Raoul's death could have been prevented. "Last week he's arrested," she said. "This week, instead of having a celebration, we're having a burial."
