He’s in reel trouble now.
One of the founders of the Bed-Stuy “aquarium” built the beloved sidewalk fish pond while out on bail in an attempted murder case — for which he was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Friday.
Hajj Malik Lovick, 48, begged for mercy during the hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court — playing up his ties to the community, including his role in building the viral makeshift aquarium in a cracked sidewalk.
“He is the founder and daily operator of the Bed-Stuy Aquarium here in Brooklyn,” his attorney, Robert Isdith, said in a bid for leniency. “He created that specific community feature to support the community.”
Lovick was convicted following a week-long trial in December of attempted murder, assault and gun charges for shooting a 51-year-old man outside the Lover’s Rock bar in Bed-Stuy on June 15, 2023.
“I was going to have a community. I stopped drugs from going on the corner and they want to give me 15 years,” he said in a rambling speech during his sentencing. “Where is the trust at? There’s no trust.”
His attorney tried playing up Lovick as a caring father and community man — mentioning how held back-to-school backpack drives and goldfish adoption programs — in addition to founding the cherished fish hole.
But Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Alejandro Vera mocked the so-called aquarium’s impact on the Bedford-Stuyvesant community, noting that it was built “less than a block away” from where the caught-on-camera shooting took place.
Prosecutors have said Lovick and the victim got into an altercation at the bar, and that things had cooled off — before the shooter went to a nearby building to grab a gun and returned, firing two shots at his rival and a crowd of bystanders.
The victim suffered a gunshot wound to his right knee. Lovick fled the scene and was arrested four days later where a knife was found on him, prosecutors said.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Jane Tully seemed dumbfounded by Lovick’s attorney’s bid to play up his neighborhood ties considering he “put that very community in grave danger” by firing a gun into a crowd.
“He made a conscious, premeditated decision to walk away, to go get a gun and to come back… [and[ fire two shots,” the judge said. “He could have killed [the victim], he could have killed anyone of the many people that were standing on the crowded sidewalk at that time. He put that very community in grave danger.”
Nearly two dozen supporters — including the aquarium’s co-creator Je-Quan Irving — were in the audience for Lovick’s sentencing.
The Bed-Stuy aquarium popped up in the neighborhood in August 2024, with dozens of goldfish swimming in roughly two inches of puddled water in cracked sidewalk underneath a fire hydrant.
Lovick told The Post at the time that he’d bought the goldfish from a nearby pet store with Irving and was crowdfunding plexiglass and a filtration system for $5,000 through GoFundMe to protect the fish as the weather cooled down.
The neighborhood favorite — located on Tompkins Avenue and Hancock Street — quickly went viral before the FDNY turned off the hydrant and officials cemented over the busted sidewalk, capping the pond and leaving several goldfish to die.
But organizers quickly scrapped together a new-and-improved version of the aquarium days later — resurrecting the aquarium in a tree pit next to the concrete-slabbed pond in November that boasted a solar-powered water filter, a titled tank and heater for their fishy friends.
The attraction, often criticized by animal activists, was forced to close around Christmas when frigid temperatures and snow barreled through the Big Apple — but organizers claimed the fish are alive and swimming in a secret location.
Lovick was out on bail awaiting trial when he built the so-called aquarium.
He was convicted of second-degree attempted murder, criminal use of a firearm in the second degree and other charges on Dec. 11, 2024, and faced up to 25 years behind bars on the top charge.
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that senseless acts of gun violence have no place in Brooklyn,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said 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,” he said. “This brazen disregard for safety is unacceptable. As Brooklyn reached the lowest number of shootings ever recorded last year, we remain steadfast in our commitment to holding individuals who perpetrate gun violence accountable to ensure our borough remains a safer place for all.”
Lovick’s attorney said he didn’t know what the fate of the aquarium would be with the co-founder in lockup.
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