NYPD: Gang members charged are responsible for 14 shootings, including three killings
Keechant Sewell, NYPD Commissioner and the former chief of detectives for the Nassau Police Department last month Credit: Craig Ruttle
NYPD detectives and Brooklyn prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against 17 gang members accused of running a criminal alliance of three crime groups allegedly responsible for terrorizing public housing areas in shootings that took three lives.
The killings included that of a 20-year-old Maryland woman attending a Sweet 19 party in November 2020.
Using surveillance camera images, social media postings over months of detective work, NYPD officials said, police arrested gang members — including some who started in their criminal careers as young as 14 years-old. They are believed to be responsible for 14 shootings, including the three fatalities.
The suspects were part of three Brooklyn gangs who combined in a group known as "YPF" and which carried out crimes in East New York, Brownsville and Fort Greene sections of the borough, police said.
At a news conference with new NYPD commissioner Keechant Sewell and Mayor Eric Adams, Brooklyn district attorney Eric Gonzalez showed a series of videos showing the shootings in public housing areas and on the street. Social media postings also showed one suspect shoving a gun in a dog’s mouth. The dog wasn’t harmed.
Sewell, the former chief of detectives for Nassau police, in her first major investigative news conference, told reporters that the case illustrated the NYPD’s determination to be focused on gun violence.
"There will be more cases like this one, not just here in Brooklyn … but in every borough," said Sewell. "I know there are young people with very limited options. But we must draw the line. Gang violence is not an [acceptable] option."
All of the defendants are from Brooklyn with the oldest being 23.
"These young men, these adolescents — it's not like they don’t have a direction in life — it appears as if success is measured in their gangs by the amount of violence they engage in. They appear to be proud of this," said Gonzalez after showing the violent videos. "One of the more troubling aspects was the recruitment of 11, 12 and 13 year-old, middle schoolers to be part of the gang," explained Gonzalez.
"For these young men, let us not mince any words here, they are going to pay a deep and significant consequence for their actions," Gonzalez said, noting five of the defendants are facing life sentences for murder while others face up to 25 years for involvement in shootings.
"If you fire a gun in this county, you are going to pay a price," added Gonzalez.
"You decimate a community’s ability to feel safe when you have a violence of this magnitude … we are not going to live in a culture of violence," said Adams.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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