By Jean Brannum | jbrannum@queensledger.com
Eighteen men between the ages of 18 and 21 were indicted on murder charges linked to twelve separate shootings that injured ten and killed two around Brooklyn, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced May 29.
Fifteen of the alleged gunmen were tied to the H-Block/Billy’s gang, which branches from the Bloods gang. Three allegedmembers of Gates Fam and Gotti Gang were also charged with homicide.
The gangs operate on the borders of Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy. The members were charged with murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and weapons possession. Fifteen firearms were seized in the arrests. Some of those allegedly tied to the shootings were as young as 14 when the crimes were committed.
“As a father of three young boys myself, this is simply appalling and shocking,” Gonzalez said.
The District Attorney showed some of the shootings the men are allegedly tied to. In August 2021, a man mistaken to be in a rival gang was shot point-blank in the face. He survived, but then the gang members shot and killed 16-year-old Jaquan Gause, who was allegedly part of the Gates Fam gang, and injured three others in two hours.
In Brownsville in June 2022, Nayshawn Campbell, an alleged Woo gang associate was shot. He was also sixteen years old.
Several other gun-related deaths have occurred at the hands of the gang members, and many non-gang-affiliated people have been caught in the crossfire. Gonzalez showed a video of an incident where the gang members fired indiscriminately toward a crowd watching a music video shoot. The videographer was shot in the leg and that was the only bullet to hit a person out of the 30 shots fired. Bullets narrowly missed a baby in a stroller.
In another incident, several gang members fired at a car. Investigators believe the shooters thought the car belonged to a rival gang that was slowing down to kill them. The people in the vehicle turned out to be non-gang-affiliated and were not injured, but there was severe damage to the vehicle, according to the District Attorney.
The eighteen were arraigned on May 29 and the 85-count indictment showing various charges between the men was unsealed.
Investigators also identified gang affiliates who were not associated with the shootings and referred them to Project Restore Bedstuy, an anti-violence organization that provides job and education opportunities.
Gonzalez said that there are many causes of young people getting involved in gangs, one of them being social media popularity, which was one source of evidence for the investigation. Deputy Inspector Craig Edelman pointed out that some have gone as far as to incriminate themselves with celebratory posts of crimes.
Edelman also pushed the public to come forward with any information related to gang activity in the borough.
Gonzalez used the announcement to give an imminent warning to young people in gangs ahead of the Summer months when gun violence tends to trend upwards.
“This is our approach here in Brooklyn, We’re gonna go hard on you if you dare fire a weapon in our communities, and we’re going to build these strong cases against you, and we’re going to send you to prison.”
Gun violence was the lowest in Brooklyn last year, according to Gonzalez. The latest CompStat for North Brooklyn shows a 5% decrease in shooting reports. South Brooklyn shows a 30% decrease in shooting incident reports since May 2023.