A father-son duo — from the same Brooklyn cult family linked to murders and phony, pan-handling nuns — was charged in a fatal shootout at a Queens baby shower, a law enforcement source said.
Expectant grandfather Lagarthucin LeGrand and his son Lagarthucin Jr. were among seven people indicted for the apparent gang-related May 4 shooting in Richmond Hill, where more than 40 people, including kids, were at the gathering, Queens DA Melinda Katz’s Office said.
Great Neck resident Jefari Dobie-Reinhardt, 24, was killed and three others hurt amid the volley of gunfire, according to authorities, who said at least 35 bullet casings, one live bullet and two live cartridges were recovered from the scene.
During the bloodbath, video footage captured the elder LeGrand being handed a gun, which he then tried to hide in a tray of rice, according to a criminal complaint.
Lagarthucin Jr. then covered the tray, which cops later found with the 9mm Sig Sauer pistol inside a trash bag, court records showed. The bullet recovered from the slain man’s corpse was matched to the gun discovered in the tray of rice, according to Queens criminal court proceedings.
Lagarthucin Jr. allegedly told police, “I was helping that n—a; I did it,” according to the criminal complaint
Lagarthucin LeGrand is facing up to 11 years behind bars on charges including weapon possession and evidence tampering. His son was hit with a single evidence-tampering charge and could be put away for up to four years.
Four others — Michael Hammond, 20; Jermaine Orr, 23; Javed Duncan, 23; and Jameer Bennett, 20 — were indicted on weapon possession, reckless endangerment, and child endangerment charges, and face up to 15 years in prison.
“An event that was supposed to be the celebration of a new life turned into a deadly bloodbath when gunfire erupted both inside and outside a party venue,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said, describing the violent scene as being straight out of “the Wild West.”
The LeGrand clan, however, isn’t an unfamiliar presence to law enforcement.
Lagarthucin’s father, DeVernon LeGrand, ran a bogus Brooklyn “church” for two decades, where drugs and alcohol flowed freely, and teens seduced into his cult were forced to raise cash by donning habits and begging for change at tourist hubs — a scheme uncovered by The Post in its Bad Habit front page.
Police collared DeVernon in 1965 on child-abuse charges, having kept many of his 46 children locked up in cages in the upper floors of a four-story Crown Heights rowhouse where he preached.
His reign of terror came finally came to an end after he was convicted of rape in 1975, and, two years later, found guilty of murdering his teenage daughter-in-law and her younger sister. He later was convicted of murdering and dismembering one of his wives in the family’s grim Brooklyn home.
Decades later, in 2010, The Post busted DeVernon LeGrand’s daughter-in-law Mindy LeGrand for posing as an Episcopal nun in Little Italy, where she claimed to be raising cash for an orphanage and the homeless. In actuality, she was continuing the cult’s unholy fundraising schtick, prompting a probe by the state attorney general.
Kenneth Montgomery, an attorney for Lagarthucin Jr., stressed his client didn’t have a violent record, and claimed it would be a mitigating factor that a pair of gunmen allegedly turned up outside his family’s celebration and opened fire at the crowd.
As for his sordid family history, Montgomery added: “People are complicated; people are interesting, complex.”
An attorney for the elder LeGrand did not respond to a request for comment.
