Film writer and producer Joseph “Taheim” Bryan was slain on Thursday, Aug. 19 while sitting in his new Mercedes-Benz. Bryan was ambushed and killed around 11:15 p.m. according to police reports obtained by The New York Post.
Bryan wrote the dirty cop police drama film Equal Standard which was released last year and starred veteran rapper and actors Ice-T, Treach of Naughty By Nature, Fredro Starr from Onyx and Roxanne Shante. The film also features Hasaan Johnson, Marc John Jeffries, Robert Clohessy and Jermaine Hopkins. The movie’s plot centers around the killing of a white NYPD police officer by a Black detective after the cop refused to believe the detective was a fellow law-enforcement officer.
“MFs killed my friend last night. I’m not in a good place behind this. Taheim was a good dude making positive moves. He wrote and we made the film Equal Standard together. He leaves a wife and daughter. Dirty MFs followed him home and murdered him. Pic @iamtaheim1st @mobbdeephavoc @tobiastruv,” Ice-T posted on Twitter.
The NY Post also reports that Bryan, who lived in Jackson Heights, was gunned down outside the Jackson Park luxury apartment complex in Long Island City. The shooter opened fire after being dropped off around the corner on Jackson Avenue by the driver of a dark-colored Mazda according to witnesses. The assassin fired about seven shots at the driver’s side of Bryan’s car, hitting him four times in the arm and torso before escaping in the Mazda, sources also revealed to the newspaper. Bryan was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where he was pronounced dead.
Bryan was known throughout the entertainment industry in New York and was good friends with Nas. He and Nas were reportedly hanging together earlier this week in Queensbridge Housing Projects in Queens, New York. Nas was visiting his old neighborhood shooting a new video.c
“People ask what makes you old… Murder makes you cold, losing friends and family to the streets makes you cold.. You can’t tell me s—- about PTSD. How many of your friends have been murdered? It changes you,” Ice-T continued about his friend’s death on IG.
Check out the trailer to Equal Standard below as Bryan’s legacy will live on through his work.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShUrdXAP1aU[/embedyt]
