A man who allegedly gunned down the mother of at least one of his children in an execution-style ambush on a Gramercy Park sidewalk was accused of sex trafficking in 2018, law enforcement sources said.
Clarkson Wilson, arrested in the shooting of 25-year-old exotic dancer Imani Armstrong, was arrested in 2018 after he allegedly slashed a 29-year-old woman in the face after she refused to work for him, sources told The Post Saturday.
“Clarkson is absolutely a pimp,” said one source familiar with Wilson’s 2018 indictment by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit.
“She didn’t want to be trafficked by him, that’s why he stabbed her,” the source said. “He stabbed her outside an apartment building and left her to bleed out.”
Wilson, 44, allegedly approached the victim on Third Avenue before the slashing –and flew into a rage when she told him she didn’t want to be pimped out, sources said.
“See, this would not have happened if you came and worked for me,” he allegedly said, before he stabbed and slashed her, sources said.
His victim received over 150 stitches, according to sources.
Wilson, who lived at the Bellevue Men’s Shelter at the time of the incident, was charged with assault with a deadly weapon with intent to cause serious injuries, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, disorderly conduct and harassment in May 2018.
At the time of his arrest, Wilson attempted to use his brother’s ID, sources said.
Prosecutors from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Sex Crimes Unit would later discover online ads linked to Wilson, according to the sources.
Wilson was indicted for attempted murder a month later, according to sources familiar with the proceedings at the time.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun, who would have to sign off on the indictment, threw out the attempted murder charge for lack of compelling evidence that proved intent, sources said.
A second source told The Post, “Danny Chun had nothing to do with the case being dismissed. It just fell apart.”
“This happens with trafficking cases,” the source went on, adding that trafficking cases “are particularly complicated” and difficult to move forward.
“This wasn’t light on justice,” the source said.
Wilson’s charges were ultimately knocked down to lesser charges — it’s unclear what the disposition of Wilson’s case was, but sources familiar with his indictment said it was dropped.
He is now charged with murder in the Thursday slaying of Armstrong, with whom he fathered at least one of the young mother’s three children.
Police say he staked out and snuck up on Armstrong, then shot her in the head around 5 a.m. on East 14th Street and Irving Place. She was walking home after finishing her overnight shift at IHOP, where she worked as a waitress.
Wilson, who has more than 20 prior arrests on his rap sheet, was also charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, the sources said.
The accused killer has at least four prior complaints against him for alleged domestic violence stretching back to 2014, although it’s not clear if any were made by Armstrong, according to sources.