Results tagged “bloods”

Federal officials busted 53 gang members affiliated with the Bloods today in a massive bust, the Post reports. They were charged with dealing crack cocaine and heroin in the Bronx, particularly the Morrisania section near Yankee Stadium, and officials believe they "are behind at least 20 unsolved murders and more than 40 shootings over the past few years." Cops made over 30 undercover heroin purchases from the gang, which had names like "Get Money Crew" and "Bronx Gun Slingers." Thirty-seven members were arrested, 3 were already in custody, and 13 remain at large. The details of the investigation, "Operation Rotten Apple," were revealed in the indictment (PDF), and really sounds like something out of "The Wire."

It's so hard to keep up with Gang Initiation Day! Is it on Easter, or around Halloween, or both... or neither. Cops are on alert again as the annual Halloween rumor settles upon us, which typically alerts the city of a Bloods-induced bloodbath that has potential new members slashing hundreds of innocent people. Of course, the NYPD notes that this is somewhat of an urban legend, and actual gang bloodshed hasn't gone down since 1995.

A menacing text message saying, "Oct. 21st starts gang initiation week they are rumored to try to kill 140 Woman.PLZ FORWARD This can save our women!" frightened some northern NJ students, but police say the so-called "Red October" gang initiation rites are an "urban legend." Newark police director Gerry McCarthy said, "Every Halloween, people were talking about gang initiation, but there is not a shred of evidence to prove that it's true." In NYC, gang initiation day is allegedly April 12.

Yesterday, the funeral of 13-year-old Kevin Miller was held in a Jamaica church, a week after he was hit by a stray bullet from gang gunfire. Queens DA Richard Brown also announced that a second suspected Crips gang member was arrested for Miller's murder, "This case is another example of the mindless gun-related violence and street gang mentality that turns our streets into battlefields and too often takes innocent lives and recklessly endangers public safety."

Friday morning a Port Authority cop faced off against a group of nine gang members aboard the PATH and took them all down without having to step off the train. Officer John Roche was fetched down while aboard a PATH train in Jersey City by 37-year-old Shine-Amon Sky around 6 a.m. Friday. Sky had woken up after dozing off during his morning commute to find one of the young Bloods nearby had stolen his cigarettes. The large group of teens and young adults then pounced on Sky when he confronted them about it. When Officer Roche tracked down the gang and saw how poorly his odds looked against so many of them, he ordered the train conductor to lock down the train just past the Grove Street stop as he waited for backup. Once his fellow officers arrived, they were able to round up all nine of the Newark gangbangers, who were charged with everything from riot and disorderly conduct to recruitment of a street gang. Two of the female teenagers were also hit with making terrorist threat when they said that they would kill Roche as he apprehended them.

The funeral of a gang member has police on "high alert" today, according to Newsday. Melissa Williams, 28, was fatally shot last month in the Rockaways: "Williams was an associate of GIB, Get It In Bricks - a reference to bricks of cocaine - police sources said. The man charged in her shooting, Nigel Vasser, also 28, is a Bloods member with a sect known as HRG Blood, for Hood Related Gangster." The two gangs have been at fighting for a few years now and, based on "prisoner debriefings" and informants' news, the NYPD will have a number of units (including the Gang Division) present at the viewing at a Rockaways Church. Further, Newsday reports, "The NYPD is so worried it even notified New Jersey State Police because Williams will be buried in Morganville, N.J., at the Forest Green Park Cemetery, and it is not unusual for rival gangs to confront each other graveside."

Surveillance video obtained by the Post depicts the early Sunday morning shooting of a teenage Harlem father who died on the very streets he struggled and failed to escape. Police say 17-year-old Cory Squire, the father of a 3-year-old boy, died after being shot once in the head from behind on West 141st Street around 4:30 a.m. Sunday. His distraught 18-year-old girlfriend tells the tabloid that Squire had tried to sever ties with the Bloods after their son was born, and even "joined the Job Corps and was training to be an electrician, but he always knew the only way he could get out of that gang was the way he got out."

The NYPD made a major gang bust in the Bronx yesterday, rounding up twenty-one Bloods on a slew of charges in connection with a pattern of gang related violence in and around the Edenwald Houses—54 indictments in total for charges on everything from murder to selling drugs. The Daily News reports that "ten of the men were hauled into Bronx Supreme Court, handcuffed together by a long chain" as at least one onlooker silently hummed Sam Cooke in their head. Five of the gang members were charged with attempted murder, including one of the accused as young as fifteen and cops say members as young as thirteen have been employed to carry out shootings. The News says that four of the men arrested are believed to be part of the gang's leadership. The group from the Wakefield section of the Bronx goes by the name "Brother for Another" and includes members nicknamed "Fizzy Woo," "Weezy" and "Drip."

Tomorrow many New Yorkers will be coming together to celebrate notions of rebirth and unity—not just in churches around town for Easter Sunday, but in Times Square as well for the lesser known and more violent "Gang Initiation Day." The Post says that the high holy day has become an annual ritual for local gangs—in 2006, they say that more than 200 gang members came through the area with three stabbings being reported. One cop told them, "It's the same nonsense every year. It's been going on a long time." The McDonald's in Times Square is one of many businesses that closed down in the wake of the '06 incidents and this year will have double its normal security on hand. a manager told the paper, "They come in, they throw chairs, they throw cups of ice at each other. It's a disaster."

A 17-year-old teenage girl was fatally shot early yesterday morning when gunfire broke out at a party held at the Elks Plaza on Fulton St. in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Nyasia Pryear, who was shot in the neck, was an honor student at Nazareth Regional High School and her relatives say she was looking forward to attending college in the fall. Two other teens were injured in the melee.

After the weekend arrest of the 15 year-old Sharell Butler (aka "Lady Red") in the brutal Bronx stabbing murder of John Hopkins Drago (as well a second murder), those who knew her naturally came to the girl's defense in the wake of the charges. But they sure didn't seem to have much to say. When asked if she was innocent, all her father is quoted as saying is, "Yes, I would believe so." And when the Times went to her neighborhood to inquire about Butler, the one neighbor who questioned her ability to commit the crime merely said, "I don't think she would have had the strength." The paper also said that those on her block didn't even "seem to know much about her," debating over if she was a recent transplant or had lived there for years. Butler will be charged as an adult in both murders and police are investigating whether the alleged Blood is involved in any other recent murders.

The NYPD announced a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds were arrested in the shooting of two people, including a 5-year-old girl who had been walking with her parents, on Monday night. The incident took place on a residential street in the Ridgewood section of Queens. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "The so-called Blood members were coming down the street and the Trinitario group was sitting on the stoop. And this was some sort of gang encounter. Shots were fired. And, as I say, we hope to make more arrests on this matter." Newsday reports when the girl's father saw one man draw a machete, the family tried to run for cover, and the little girl was hit in the back. A 28-year-old man, believed to be involved in the dispute, was shot in the leg. Neighbors tell NY1 there's been a lot of gang violence in the neighborhood.

A man accused of shooting four female family members and then burning down the house they were in turned himself in to police yesterday in Irvington, NJ. Rolando Terrell (known as "Rat Man") is accused of shooting three women and a teenage girl in the NJ town bordering Newark. Two of the women were burned beyond recognition and the 13-year-old girl was shot in the face. A 14-month-old toddler who survived was rushed from the apartment covered in blood by an unknown woman.

The police have arrested two teens who are accused of luring a cop "into the line of fire" in Bed-Stuy on Sunday. Cops say a 15-year-old "purposefully distracted a cop": The teen first spoke to a uniformed patrol cop, headed into a Chinese restaurant and gave some food to a group across the street from the cop, and went back to talk to the cop. Then an 18-year-old, Bloods gang member Keith Myers, allegedly fired at the cop from across the street. Myers, who claimed he was firing at a different car with a Crips member pointing a gun at him, was charged with attempted murder and weapons possession. The other teen, also a member of the Bloods, was charged with attempted murder, acting in concert and reckless endangerment.

A is for Apple..B is for Blood and C is for Crip? The Daily News has a disturbing story about gang-member parents indoctrinating their children from birth in gang life. Before they can even speak, some of these tots can flash their signs and are adorned with gang colors and accouterments. Are gang-themed line of onesies far behind?

After a public scrutiny over police procedure when dozens of youths were arrested on their way to a gang members' wake, the Brooklyn DA's office has decided to drop the charges of 22 of the arrestees. Ten others will face charges.

New Jersey police have arrested a number of members of the Lucchese crime family. In the process of breaking up a multi-billion dollar betting organization, cops discovered that the old school mafia family had also teamed up with the more street-level gang the Bloods. The two groups were working together to smuggle things like iPods, cell phones, and drugs into the East Jersey State Prison. The betting ring was fairly sophisticated, utilizing Internet sites, an 800 phone line, and personal interaction to process more than $2 billion in wagers annually. The smuggling ring was facilitated by a corrections officer who worked at the prison.

A happy event turned violent early Sunday morning when the manager of a Brooklyn catering hall fired at three guests, and by the time the police caught a second shooter, one person was dead and four others were wounded. A baby shower at the El Barandillo banquet hall on Atlantic Avenue turned into a fight between members of the Bloods and Crips - all of whom were invited to the shower. El Barandillo manager Omar...