Behind 2 Killings in Brooklyn Outside the G & P Gourmet Deli in East New York, Brooklyn, everyone seemed to know Raul Correa. The 59-year-old Mr. Correa could usually be found there drinking a Heineken on a lazy afternoon or helping out in the back making sandwiches. Equally familiar were the younger men who passed their time at the three-story home next door, a dirt-darkened structure notorious in the neighborhood as a magnet for drinking and drug use. If there were a choirboy among any of them, he would have been well disguised. Many had criminal backgrounds, including Mr. Correa, an occasional drug dealer. For a time, Mr. Correa and the young men pursued a wary coexistence, one punctuated by regular harassment of Mr. Correa. "They used to mess with him on a daily basis," said one man in the neighborhood, who insisted on remaining anonymous for fear of retaliation. They would threaten him, threaten to kill him. But on Oct. 18, a Friday evening, Mr. Correa had apparently had enough. He took out a handgun, the police said, and opened fire on the men in front of 202 Pennsylvania Avenue. Two were struck and killed: Randolph Williams, 37, and Tevin Beckles, 21. "When you make this your life, just hanging out, bad things can happen," said Wayne Irvin, a 50-year-old retired sanitation worker who now drives a school bus. He studied a photocopied image of Mr. Beckles that was hanging outside the home, where candles and mostly empty bottles of brandy, cognac, tequila and beer formed a small shrine. I used to see that guy out here every day. The two victims and Mr. Correa had more than their share of encounters with the law: The three had been arrested a combined 94 times, the police said. Mr. Williams, known on the block as Shai, accounted for 52 arrests, mostly for drug offenses, the police said, and had spent time at Rikers Island on 10 separate occasions. Mr. Beckles, whom many knew as Gold Tooth, had been arrested 24 times, the police said, though nearly all arrest records were sealed. Recent offenses included marijuana possession and forcible touching. Mr. Correa, too, had longstanding trouble with the law, having been arrested 18 times and served two long prison terms in the 1980s and 1990s for dealing drugs. Most recently, he was arrested on May 10 on charges of selling drugs, suggesting that even as he approached retirement age, he had not entirely left that past behind. He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of drug possession. But what seemed surprising to those around him was the sudden eruption of violence from someone with little history of such acts. "These are not exactly communion every day and twice-on-Sundays type of guys," said Mr. Correa's court-appointed lawyer, Philip J. Smallman. But this event is not his style, let's put it that way. The trouble, residents said, had been building in recent months between the men of 202 Pennsylvania Avenue and Mr. Correa, who lived down the block at 216 Pennsylvania. The young men also had trouble with the storefront mosque down an alley behind the house. In good weather, the men regularly drink and smoke marijuana around the alley, near two gray murals of the Ten Commandments, antagonizing members of the mosque. A recent verbal altercation over the issue turned into a fistfight. Mr. Correa had also recently tangled with the men from the house. But they had appeared to have put it behind them and had been seen drinking together on Oct. 18, the day of the killings. "Before he shot these two kids, he was drinking with them right here," said Solomon White, 30, who had known Mr. Beckles since childhood. If this didn't happen, he'd be right here now. Mr. Correa had been in and out of the store all afternoon that Friday, buying and drinking beers. It was something of a regular routine, except on Sundays, when he often slept much of the day. But the night took a turn in the grocery store. "One of the group came in, one of the guys who had been threatening him, and walked in quick and slapped him in the face," the man said. "His reaction was like, "That's it." He was different after that punch. Mr. Correa fetched a gun, the police said, and confronted the men, who stood near the fence by the mouth of the alley. Witnesses readily identified Mr. Correa in line-ups after the shootings, the police said. He was arrested, charged with murder, arraigned and jailed without making statements about his motive, the police said. Mr. White and another witness said he appeared to have aimed only at Mr. Beckles and had inadvertently struck Mr. Williams. Neither had been the one to slap him shortly before. "He was a good dude," said Stone Meeks, 42, an uncle of Mr. Williams who stood by the shrine on a recent morning. He described his nephew's interest in electronics repair and efforts to improve his life in recent years. I don't know what happened.