Suspect in Brooklyn housing complex slay told shooter who to target: D.A.

An ex-con busted in an August murder at a troubled Brooklyn public housing complex pointed out the victim to the shooter, then helped chase the doomed man into a lobby, prosecutors allege.

Thomas Nimmons, 26, played a key role in the murder of Dawuand Darrien, even though he didn’t fire the bullets that left the 29-year-old victim bleeding to death Aug. 12, according to a criminal complaint.

A witness saw Nimmons and the shooter walking together in the courtyard of the Sumner Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant at 2:40 a.m. When Nimmons saw Darrien, he told the unidentified gunman, “It is him,” the complaint alleges.

Darrien bolted toward a building on Vernon Ave. near Marcus Garvey Blvd. around 2:40 a.m., making it into the lobby before Nimmons and the shooter caught him, prosecutors allege.

Video footage from the lobby shows the shooter opening fire as Darrien collapses, while Nimmons also holds a gun in his hand, according to the complaint.

Darrien was shot in the chest, and a bullet ripped through his lung, pulmonary artery and vein, according to the complaint.

Nimmons was released from prison in April after serving almost four years for criminal possession of a controlled substance, assault and attempted robbery, public records show.

He was arrested Friday and charged with murder and weapon possession charges, and was ordered held without bail at his Brooklyn criminal court arraignment.

A message to his lawyer was not immediately returned Monday.

Darrien was shot after he and a friend became embroiled in a shouting match with two other men, witnesses told police. The fight may have involved a drunken girl heard screaming outside, building tenants told the Daily News in August.

The Sumner Houses have been plagued by violence in recent weeks. On Sept. 30, Kyle Forde, 28, was shot to death, and two of his friends were wounded by bullets, in a courtyard at the housing development. And on Sept. 4, three men and a woman were wounded in a broad-daylight shooting near a basketball court at the complex.