Results tagged “gang”

Street gangs used to have way cooler names — like, say, the Devil's Rebels for instance. Now there's some amazing footage that's resurfaced of the '70s Bushwick gang, originally broadcast as part of a 1976 newscast. The footage was allegedly captured using a night vision lens and concealed cameras, and Bushwick BK notes that it all goes down in the 83rd Precinct, "a battleground for the police and young street criminals, where a teenage gang roams the streets at night looking for trouble."

A gunman for the Gambino family has taken the unusual and dangerous step of outing himself as homosexual, as a gambit to obtain a lower sentence for killing a Queens bagel store owner in 2003. Robert Mormando had already confessed to the murder, and his decision to out himself in court was intended to show the judge that his cooperation was riskier than most, because, as we know from The Sopranos, the mob kills gay members. In fact, the NY Times even gets the actor who played a homosexual gangster on the series to weigh in!

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.

That's right, bird on bird violence is happening in our own backyard: Brooklyn. WCBS reports that a man recently rescued a falcon from a troupe of pigeon bullies! While an adult peregrine falcon could have taken them all out, this one was just a baby, being chased and pecked at by the larger birds. "Morgan Pitts says the falcon was either abandoned by its mother or fell from its nest in his Greenpoint. The frightened chick is now in the care of veterinarians at The Animal Medical Center in Manhattan." One day he'll encounter those pigeons again and the tables will be turned. Until that showdown, however, check out the baby falcons that were born at three different city bridges earlier this year.

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."

A man accused of beating an off-duty police officer during a 2006 fight at a Bronx White Castle was acquitted of assault charges. Daryl Massey, who had pleaded not guilty, insisted he never touched officer Eric Hernandez. Hernandez, who was taunted and beaten by a gang at the fast food restaurant, had drawn a gun and did not drop it when a responding officer asked him to. The responding officer fired at Hernandez, who later died of his injuries. A jury deliberated for three days before coming to their verdict. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch said, "We are outraged and disappointed that this cowardly thug who was part of a wolf pack that attacked officer Hernandez and set into motion a chain of events that led to the officer's tragic death will not be held responsible for his crime. Everyone who participated in any part of this unwarranted and brutal attack shares the responsibility for the death of a good police officer and deserves prison time as a result."

Just last year around this time word was circulating amongst the rapidly gentrifying streets of Williamsburg that gang warfare and machete attacks were on the rise. While the police presence in the area was heightened, the violence continued throughout the summer—and now that spring is in the air once again, it seems the gangs are done hibernating for the winter. A reader sent us in a tip, saying things are heating up between the Pretty Boy Goonies and the Trinitarios on the Southside. The local reported back saying that the community was on edge after this past Sunday night around 7 p.m. "there was a pipe fight on Bedford around South 4th Street that sent a kid to the hospital." And on Monday night at 6 p.m. "at the pizza place on South Fourth and Bedford, a bunch of guys went into a restaurant and caned a kid while he was on the phone to his mother." Just three hours after that, on South 3rd and Bedford, "a guy was beaten with bottles and a window was broken out of the building behind him." This is what happens when weapons are sold with $1.25 slices!

This morning, federal agents and members of the NYPD busted dozens of members of the Trinitarios gang in Washington Heights and the Bronx early this morning. MyFoxNY reports, "The Trinitarios are accused of being a Dominican gang that operated and controlled drug trafficking on at least four city blocks in the area of West 171st Street through West 174th Streets in the Washington Heights neighborhood." Also: 200 law enforcement officers were involved with the raid. The Trinitarios are believed to be the city's fastest growing gang—and they are not afraid to use violence (their weapon of choice is the machete).

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.

Following yesterday's alert about an increase in gang activity last night and tonight, one reader writes in saying that "the faces of three Brooklyn women have been slashed ... The Bloods are out all day and tonight working on their initiations. Supposedly they have to slice 31 people to get initiated into the gang?" And another reader writes, "I have a friend at a hospital uptown, and she said word is that a few victims are currently being treated."

The NY Post reports that "felonious assaults were up 21 percent as of July 6, compared to the same time period in 2007" in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. On the topic of the recent stabbings, the article quotes a 17-year-old student from the area who claims much of the violence is from "warring youth gangs, largely Hispanic, [who] cross a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway line of demarcation and prey upon each other." The Saturday stabbing was reportedly carried out by a South Side Williamsburg gang called the Trinitarios. These guys are known to trash talk via raps on YouTube; it's just like West Side Story...but with machetes and real blood.

The Daily News sheds some light on Saturday morning's stabbings in Williamsburg (though the Post's sources seem to tell a slightly different story). They report: "A machete-wielding mob marching down a gritty Brooklyn street stabbed a pair of teenagers Saturday during a bloody night in the city that left two other men dead. About 15 suspected gang members, wearing T-shirts over their faces, stormed down S. Third St. in Williamsburg around 2 a.m. brandishing 18-inch blades and yelling for their intended target to show himself." The group, who are said to belong to Trinitarios gang, couldn't find their target so attacked his two friends instead. They are both expected to survive. No arrests have been made, and it's still unclear if these stabbings were related to previous ones.

The Williamsburg Stabber, who is more than likely a group of stabbers, has struck again. In April two cops walking the beat told us "the increased police presence was in response to a spate of machete-wielding gang violence" -- well, a lot of good the increased security has done. A tipster writes in to tell us about last weekend's Saturday morning stabbing, which police suspect was part of a gang initiation and in step with an upsurge of gang activity in the neighborhood. From the email:

At around 8-8:30 on Saturday he was walking home from the Metropolitan Pool gym. When he turned onto Driggs, he noticed someone riding on a bicycle. He turned onto Fillmore and the person rode slowly next to him. When they reached around the middle of the block the person on the bike pulled up in front of him, and without saying anything, he stabbed him 3 times in the chest. He then took off, again biking slowly away.

Continue reading "Williamsburg Stabber Strikes Again"

The morning after George Atterbury, general manager of Grayz restaurant on West 54th Street, was interviewed by Eater about his experiences greeting swells at Grayz, he was slashed in the face and stabbed in the abdomen by three men on the East Side. A dining blog curse, or just a random act of violence? Police are now suggesting another possible explanation: mob ties.

The idea sounds preposterous at first, but a pair of retired NYPD detectives believes that a gang of serial killers are responsible for the deaths of at least 40 young men across 11 states.

Earlier in the week, unconfirmed reports of a knife-wielding assailant had Williamsburg residents on edge; South Williamsburg in particular has been flooded with patrolmen all week, and we’ve heard from readers who say they’ve been written summons for minor offenses like jaywalking.