Prosecutors in Brooklyn have indicted 22 alleged gang members in one of the largest such takedowns in the borough’s history, prosecutors said.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the charges Thursday at an event with Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny that touted the ongoing sweeps as partly responsible for significant declines in gun violence across Kings County.
The defendants, mostly alleged to be members of the Renegade Goons and subsets of the Folk Nation gang, are named in a 176-count indictment that includes charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. It’s the third major takedown in the borough in as many months, part of a strategy Gonzalez credited with making Brooklyn safer.
“These are the drivers of gun violence,” Gonzalez said Thursday. “They're a very small percentage of young men, particularly, who will pick up a gun, aim that gun at a person, and pull the trigger and attempt to shoot them.”
Gonzalez said the defendants are allegedly responsible for a total of 26 shootings that injured 23 people, leaving one of them dead. The incidents spanned from 2022 through this year, and were concentrated around Brooklyn neighborhoods stretching from Flatbush to Coney Island, according to prosecutors. Several of the shootings happened near the sprawling Flatbush Gardens housing complex, plaguing residents who have long voiced concerns about safety.
Nine of those charged are currently teenagers, two of whom allegedly perpetrated a shooting at a Sweet 16 party in East New York last December, according to the indictment. Gonzalez said defendants Deremous Wilder and Gabriel Rhoden, both 17, sought out the party as a place to hunt for rival gang members and once they arrived, they opened fire.
”They didn't strike one or two of the kids. They in fact struck six teenagers,” Gonzalez said. “Three of them were girls, 15 years old. They’re all going to survive the shooting, the trauma will last forever."
Gonzalez has long been outspoken about revisiting New York’s Raise the Age Law, which makes it harder for prosecutors to charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, especially in cases where they are caught with guns but haven’t actually participated in a shooting. Citywide, more teenagers have been arrested for fatal shootings so far this year than any other age group, though advocates for the bill continue to emphasize the importance of steering young people toward alternatives to incarceration.
Hochul said one of the guns used in the shooting was a ghost gun — the kind of untraceable weapon that can be made using a 3D printer. Last month, she signed legislation that will require every 3D printer sold in New York to include software that makes it impossible to print gun parts.
“ We have to do everything we can to get ahead of these criminals, stop them from using this technology and turning their, their kitchen table into a … place where they can make weapons of mass destruction,” Hochul said.
Kenny said it’s hard to tell whether gang activity is increasing across the city. He said there are more than 500 different gangs and crews currently logged in the department’s criminal groups database — a controversial tool touted by law enforcement officials but scorned by some city councilmembers and other advocates who feel it is racially biased.
In Brooklyn North, which includes neighborhoods like Brownsville, Bed-Stuy and Williamsburg, shooting incidents and victims are both down by more than 16% so far this year. In Brooklyn South, which encompasses places like Coney Island and Sunset Park, shooting incidents are down by almost 12% while the number of victims has remained stable.
Prosecutors said the defendants were arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday.
Redmond Haskins from the Legal Aid Society, which is representing a number of the defendants, said the organization had no comment about the case. An inquiry to Brooklyn Defender Services was not immediately returned.
