The tragic murder of 15-year-old Brandon Bethea triggered the investigation that led to a massive gang takedown in Queens. Bethea was killed by a stray bullet in 2008 in a Far Rockaway project, shot by a gang member firing into a crowd. The gunman's arrest sparked a wiretap investigation that took down 104 people identifying with "Flocc," a gang alliance between members of the Crips and the Bloods. "It was that investigation that got us up on the phones as we learned about the [gang] activity in that area," Deputy Chief Robert Boyce told the Daily News.

The investigation led cops to Keith Livingston, who had allegedly planned to shoot cops from his rooftop. He said he was tired of being stopped by police all the time, and felt their presence was hurting his drug trade. Police heard Livingston claim he would shoot cops with a 9-mm. Hi-Point rifle over a wire tapped phone. "We absolutely think he was serious," said Boyce. "He had the weapon and the ammunition to do the job." The takedown also revealed the alliance between members of the South Jamaica Crips and Far Rockaway Bloods, where the Bloods would sell their drugs wholesale to the Crips, who wanted to dominate the Far Rockaway drug trade. Boyce called the alliance, "simply an economic arrangement."