Fifteen years ago, Cyrill Hanna IV’s life was not too different from that of one of the young men who now stands accused of killing him in a shooting on a San Jose city street.

Hanna was jailed in 2010 as part of a major gang sweep targeting a group called BNT, based in San Francisco, whose members were charged with homicides, robberies, and nonfatal shootings. Hanna got relatively lucky; he avoided a murder conviction and was sentenced to prison for robbery. For the next decade and a half, his life would be fraught, with incarceration, dealings with police, and repeated promises and expressions of hope for a better tomorrow.

“I was locked in a cage when one of my grandmothers I grew to be very close to passed away. Even more recently, I was locked in a cage when my mother passed away and as more and more time passes away, I reflect,” Hanna wrote to a federal judge who sentenced him to prison for gun possession in 2022. “I spent ‘all’ of my teens in a box which turned into majority of my 20’s and now presently am in my 30’s locked in a box that looks no different.”

In 2025, Hanna was back in jail, facing charges of violating supervised release in connection with a series of crimes in Concord, including violent robberies. Victims were zip-tied by two men who threatened and robbed them of cash, jewelry and marijuana. In April, a judge let him out of jail briefly to witness the birth of his daughter. In September 2025, he was sentenced to a year in federal prison, backdated to January 2025, putting his release date in early 2026.

“It’s going to be a turning point. I really hope it is a turning point in your life. I think it will be,” Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer told Hanna before sentencing him.

But whether Hanna would have found a new direction in life will never be known. At 2:20 a.m. on May 31, at South First and East Reed streets in San Jose, at least one gunman lit up a car full of men, including 38-year-old Hanna. He was killed by the gunfire. One other person was shot and wounded, and a third man was injured when the vehicle crashed.

Now San Jose police have arrested two suspects who are facing murder charges. It has been theorized that one of them, 23-year-old Samuel Jordan, may have had a score to settle as one of the surviving victims — a former co-defendant with Hanna in the BNT case — had beaten charges of shooting Jordan’s mother, failed San Francisco Supervisor Candidate Deandra Bryant, years earlier.

Police haven’t said whether Hanna, who rapped under the stage name Hanna Han, was the primary target of the shooting. One of the surviving victims, Julius Rhodes, told the San Francisco Chronicle he had no idea who shot him while he was stopped at a light in a $200,000 Porsche, and he didn’t recognize the suspects’ names.

“I’m just trying to live my life,” Rhodes said. “I’m trying to be peaceful.”

The other suspect is a young man whose biography reads like Hanna’s did in his early 20s. Like Hanna, he was identified by police as a potentially dangerous gang member in his teens, and has spent the last several years being suspected of or charged with serious crimes, including murder. He is Cameron Haynes, 21, and he was already in custody facing charges of robbery at Sunvalley Mall in Concord when he was charged with killing Hanna.

Haynes, an alleged Double Rock gang member, was arrested in connection with the killing of Jen Angel, a popular Oakland baker, media activist, author and journalist who was dragged to her death in 2023, while attempting to stop robbers from escaping in a car. Haynes was never charged after his no-bail murder arrest. Another suspect, Ishmael Burch, received a seven-year prison term.

In June, Haynes was arrested in connection with an armed robbery at Sunvalley Mall after police traced him and four other suspects to Richmond. He was charged with conspiracy, robbery, and gang activity. While in custody, Haynes was attacked by a rival member of the Tre-4 gang, identified in court records as Reno Fiapoto, a local rapper who goes by TearItOff Greezy. Fiapoto is facing charges of murdering a Double Rock gang member in Richmond, and is due for a second trial after his first one resulted in a mistrial.