Twenty-two alleged gang members are now under arrest following a string of violent crimes across Brooklyn and Manhattan, Eyewitness News ABC7NY reported. Authorities say the suspects belong to two gangs and have been swept up in a coordinated law enforcement operation targeting persistent street violence in the boroughs.
The accused are variously charged with conspiracy to commit murder, assault and weapons possession. Prosecutors describe the group as a driving force behind sustained gun violence, tying its members to dozens of shootings and other acts of violence over a span of several years.
According to prosecutors, the suspects were responsible for 26 shootings between October 2022 and this year. Those attacks killed one person and injured more than 20 others, a toll that allegedly included three innocent bystanders caught in the gunfire rather than the intended targets.
One of the incidents highlighted by authorities involved a gunman who opened fire outside a sweet 16 celebration late last year, wounding six teenagers. Prosecutors called the cases among the most egregious they see in the county, underscoring the danger the alleged shootings posed to bystanders and young people.
A prosecutor speaking for the district attorney's office, identified as Gonzalez, framed the suspects as the core of the borough's gun violence problem, describing them as a very small percentage of young men who will pick up a gun, aim it at a person and pull the trigger in an attempt to shoot them.
Officials said the arrests represent the third such takedown in as many months, part of a concerted effort to drive down gun violence in the borough. The suspects now face prosecution on the conspiracy and related charges as the case moves through the courts.