Over a dozen people, including some in the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC, street gang, are expected to be charged in connection with at least five homicides in the city on Wednesday, sources tell CBS News Philadelphia.
Sources say the charges are a result of a multi-year investigation with the city’s police department and the district attorney’s office.
Prosecutors in the city’s DAO and members of PPD will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday to announce what officials called a “major bust” connected with multiple shootings involving South and Southwest Philadelphia street groups.
The press conference will be carried live in the video player attached to this article or wherever CBS News Philadelphia is streaming.
Officials did not say which street groups were involved, but sources said some of the charges include YBC members.
A spokesperson with the DA’s office said in a media advisory that the alleged shootings happened between 2022 and 2024 and resulted in 35 victims between 5 and 42 years old. The alleged shootings happened in their neighborhoods and across the city, according to the media advisory.
It’s unclear how many suspects police have in custody and officials haven’t identified names or specific cases at this time.
Police and the DA’s office have charged and arrested members of street gangs in the city in the past, including YBC and the street group Fastbreak.
In September 2024, 16-year-old Aiden Waters was charged with killing YBC ringleader and rapper Abdul Vicks in North Philadelphia. Waters was also charged in two other shootings, including another murder. District Attorney Larry Krasner previously said Waters was a member of Fastbreak. Court documents show that in February 2025, Waters was charged with two other murders. — one in January 2024 and another in February 2024.
One of the inmates who escaped from Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center in May 2023, Ameen Hurst, was also a member of the Young Bag Chasers, Krasner previously confirmed. Hurst was at PICC in connection with four homicides. He was sentenced in November 2024 to 55 to 100 years in connected with the murders and his prison escape.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Dan Snyder
contributed to this report.
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