Prosecutors in Brooklyn have indicted 22 alleged gang members in one of the largest such takedowns in the borough\u2019s history, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the charges Thursday at an event with Gov. Kathy Hochul and NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny that touted the ongoing sweeps as partly responsible for significant declines in gun violence across Kings County.<\/p>\n
The defendants, mostly alleged to be members of the Renegade Goons and subsets of the Folk Nation gang, are named in a 176-count indictment<\/a> that includes charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, assault and criminal possession of a weapon. It\u2019s the third major takedown in the borough in as many months, part of a strategy Gonzalez credited with making Brooklyn safer.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are the drivers of gun violence,\u201d Gonzalez said Thursday. \u201cThey’re a very small percentage of young men, particularly, who will pick up a gun, aim that gun at a person, and pull the trigger and attempt to shoot them.\u201d<\/p>\n Gonzalez said the defendants are allegedly responsible for a total of 26 shootings that injured 23 people, leaving one of them dead. The incidents spanned from 2022 through this year, and were concentrated around Brooklyn neighborhoods stretching from Flatbush to Coney Island, according to prosecutors. Several of the shootings happened near the sprawling Flatbush Gardens housing complex, plaguing residents who have long voiced concerns<\/a> about safety.<\/p>\n Nine of those charged are currently teenagers, two of whom allegedly perpetrated a shooting at a Sweet 16 party in East New York<\/a> last December, according to the indictment. Gonzalez said defendants Deremous Wilder and Gabriel Rhoden, both 17, sought out the party as a place to hunt for rival gang members and once they arrived, they opened fire.<\/p>\n \u201dThey didn’t strike one or two of the kids. They in fact struck six teenagers,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThree of them were girls, 15 years old. They\u2019re all going to survive the shooting, the trauma will last forever.”<\/p>\n Gonzalez has long been outspoken<\/a> about revisiting New York\u2019s Raise the Age Law, which makes it harder for prosecutors to charge 16- and 17-year-olds as adults, especially in cases where they are caught with guns but haven\u2019t actually participated in a shooting. Citywide, more teenagers have been arrested<\/a> for fatal shootings so far this year than any other age group, though advocates for the bill continue to emphasize the importance of steering young people toward alternatives to incarceration.<\/p>\n Hochul said one of the guns used in the shooting was a ghost gun \u2014 the kind of untraceable weapon that can be made using a 3D printer. Last month, she signed legislation<\/a> that will require every 3D printer sold in New York to include software that makes it impossible to print gun parts.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWe have to do everything we can to get ahead of these criminals, stop them from using this technology and turning their, their kitchen table into a \u2026 place where they can make weapons of mass destruction,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n