The co-creator of the infamous Bed-Stuy Aquarium was sentenced to prison for attempted murder on Friday.
Bed-Stuy resident Hajj Lovick, 48, was convicted after trial last month for shooting a man in the leg outside a Bed-Stuy bar in the summer of 2023. On Jan. 3, he was sentenced in Brooklyn Supreme Court to 12 years in prison and five years of probation for attempted murder, attempted assault, assault, reckless endangerment, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of a firearm.
According to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, Lovick and the victim, a 51-year-old man, entered a heated verbal argument outside Lover’s Rock bar on Tompkins Avenue shortly before 2 a.m. on June 15, 2023. During the squabble, Lovick pulled out a knife and lunged toward the unarmed victim as if to stab him.
Eventually, the two men cooled off, and Lovick went into a building near the bar – then returned to the street with a gun and fired twice toward the victim and a crowd of bystanders, striking the 51-year-old man once in the shin. The entire altercation was captured on surveillance video, according to the DA.
Lovick fled the scene, but left his knife, which was later recovered by police, at the scene. The victim was taken to NYC Health+Hospitals/Kings County, where he was treated and released.
Police arrested Lovick on June 19, 2023. He was released on bail sometime after July 24, 2023, court records show.
Last summer, about a year after the shooting, Lovick and a few of his neighbors started the “Bed-Stuy Aquarium,” a makeshift goldfish “pond” in a sidewalk pit beside a leaky fire hydrant near the corner of Hancock Street and Tompkins Avenue — steps from Lover’s Rock bar, where the shooting occurred.
The Aquarium proved controversial — many locals loved it and felt it brought the community together. Others said that keeping fish in a few inches of unfiltered, unheated water was akin to animal abuse. In October, the FDNY inspected the hydrant and fixed the leak, cutting off water to the fish. A few days later, the pond was paved over — but Lovick and his collaborators quickly pivoted and re-installed a makeshift tank in the same tree pit. Lovick documented the process on his TikTok account.
“They said we would never make it, we’d never make it, we’d never be able to keep doing it,” Lovick said in a Dec. 12 video. “Bed-Stuy Aquarium. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Here forever. Every morning I’m going to make sure I come out and take care of these fish.”
In court, Lovick and his attorney asked the court for leniency in sentencing and cited the Bed-Stuy Aquarium among Lovick’s ties to the community, according to the New York Post, but the judge and an assistant district attorney were not impressed.
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that senseless acts of gun violence have no place in Brooklyn,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, in a statement. “The defendant’s decision to open fire over a petty argument not only caused serious harm to the victim but endangered innocent lives in our community. This brazen disregard for safety is unacceptable.”
The Aquarium was closed and the fish relocated in late December due to freezing temperatures. On Dec. 25, the Bed-Stuy Aquarium said on Instagram that it had convened a “working group” with city agencies and elected officials to come up with a plan to create an “upgraded, temporary aquarium,” and hoped to start working toward a permanent aquarium this month. According to the Bed-Stuy Aquarium FAQ, the project has at least three backers aside from Lovick.
Kcassman