Aaron Showalter/New York Daily News
Dennzel Holder, left, is facing murder charges for allegedly shooting Shawn Williams in 2011.
A fight over hair weaves ended up with one of the warring women’s boyfriend lying dead in a Brooklyn street, a jury heard Thursday.
“If it was not such a tragic incident, we would probably laugh about it because it’s so pathetic,” assistant district attorney Edward Purce told the panel as the murder trial against Dennzel Holder, 21, got underway.
“Shawn Williams was shot in the back because two groups of young women were fighting about a hair weave,” the prosecutor said in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
The senseless shooting on a sunny August 2011 day began after three teens were walking down a shopping strip on Nostrand Ave. in Crown Heights.
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Their conversation turned to hair extensions with one of them saying, “My boyfriend wouldn’t let me walk out of the house looking like that,” said Williams’ sister, Tiara Haynes.
Sheniqua Cunningham, who was walking with Williams, her beau, a few steps ahead believed the slight was aimed at her and took offense.
“She didn’t look as glamorous, I guess, so she thought they were making fun of her,” Haynes said outside court.
Soon, all hell broke loose, with punches and a bottle being thrown.
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Williams was playing the peacemaker and things calmed down, lawyers said, until Shatasia Meggett called Holder, her boyfriend, with other pals arriving at the scene. Violence then flared up again.
“You have approximately five young ladies in combat,” said defense lawyer Gregory Watts, who insisted his client was not the shooter.
“Mr. Williams and Mr. Holder are just there, watching,” he went on. “Mr. Holder didn’t get involved in the altercation.”
But Purce contended that witnesses — who are expected to take the stand when the trial resumes next week — will identify the defendant as the man who fired at least twice, killing the victim as he fled.
“He took this to another level,” the prosecutor said.
“He took it to a place where it was no longer something to joke about.”
oyaniv@nydailynews.com
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