Prosecutors have arrested 23 people they said are responsible for a violent and dangerous gang war between gang members in two housing developments that led to at least 18 shootings.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the bloody feud between gang members in the Astoria and Woodside Houses started in 2018. Police began to investigate in March 2021, when 37 year-old Gudelia Vallinas was shot and killed while buying milk for her family – an innocent bystander in a shooting between gang members, according to NYPD Deputy Chief Jason Savino.

Many of the shootouts happened in broad daylight and in front of children, prosecutors said. One time in June 2020, three men fired at their rivals in the courtyard of the Woodside housing projects, hitting two people while children watched.

In another incident the same month, a man shot at a passing car while standing beside an ice cream truck while a little girl danced, prosecutors said. The girl covered her ears from the crack of the gunfire, prosecutors said.

Katz announced the arrests alongside Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.

“Those who believe they can create a culture of fear in our city are wrong,” Sewell said. “We will be back with more cases and more arrests.”

Lawyers for the 18 men accused of crimes could not immediately be identified and reached. The accused have been charged with various crimes, including conspiracy and attempted murder. Almost all of them face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

Traequan Middleton, assistant community center director of Astoria Houses and a former resident of Astoria houses, said gun crime in his community has been relentless.

“If there is a plan, it needs to be adjusted because I’m not seeing change,” Middleton said. “We have cops patrolling public housing every day and there’s still shootouts in broad daylight.”

Middleton argued that what the community of Astoria Houses needs, besides policing, is more resources and more activities and opportunities for the youth that make up the majority of these deadly exchanges.

“There’s nothing for them to do and no unity in the community,” Middleton said. “Right now no one is setting the example or providing guidance and what’s happening on a day to day basis here is awful.”

Kenny Carter, executive director of Fathers Alive in the Hood, Inc. (FAITH), a Queens-based nonprofit organization supporting community alternatives to violence, said he agreed.

“We need more funding for community organizations that are willing to provide mentorship and opportunity and we need parents who are spending more time with their kids and paying attention to what they’re doing and listening to,” Carter said.

A father himself, Carter said that everything starts at home and that if kids don’t receive the right attention there they will seek it out from other, often more dangerous, sources.

“These are the things going on in these communities and they’ve created a generation where people only respect disrespect,” Carter said.