While Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is grandstanding at the Philadelphia airport, leveling silly threats at federal ICE agents who are aiding travelers process security procedures in the absence of TSA security personnel who are unpaid by Congress, it appears that some of his subordinates at the DA office are on the job.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
A case in point is the March 19th announcement that the DA\u2019s office brought charges against 21 defendants, all members of local street gangs in Philadelphia. The 21 defendants were indicted for their role in more than a dozen\u00a0shootings and gun-related crimes across Philadelphia. According to the DA\u2019s Office, the\u00a0crimes occurred between January 2022 and August 2023, with a total of 32\u00a0victims, including the murder of 18-year-old\u00a0Aquill Foster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 33rd Philadelphia County Investigating Grand Jury has determined\u00a0that Maliek Robbins, Jayme Drayton, Marquan Flamer, Baahij Arthur, Atum El, Emmitt Hardee, Damar Holmes, Rahmel Humphrey, Carl Jarett, Quadir Spady, Elante Outerbridge, Eli Simmons, Malik Sweets, Ivan Williams, Javon Fisher, Baseer Johnson, Aliaan Harris, Taaj Lennon, Bryant Cumberbatch and Samerah Pendleton\u00a0are implicated in\u00a0one homicide, eighteen non-fatal shootings, three gunpoint carjackings, one car theft, and one gunpoint robbery,\u201d stated the DA\u2019s Office. \u201cOne other individual\u00a0is\u00a0not being named at this time as part of the ongoing investigation. The Investigating Grand Jury also determined that the defendants are\u00a0connected to the street groups known as \u201cThe Senders,\u201d \u201cThe Close Range Gang,\u201d \u201c7th\u00a0Street,\u201d and \u201cPNB.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFive of the defendants were taken\u00a0into custody today while several others were already in custody awaiting trial on other charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Charges are:<\/p>\n
Maliek Robbins<\/p>\n
Aggravated Assault<\/p>\n
Robbery<\/p>\n
Conspiracy<\/p>\n
Jayme Drayton<\/p>\n
Marquan Flamer<\/p>\n
Baahij Arthur<\/p>\n
Atum El<\/p>\n
Emmitt Hardee<\/p>\n
Conspiracy to Commit Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Damar Holmes<\/p>\n
Rahmel Humphrey<\/p>\n
Carl Jarett<\/p>\n
Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Robbery<\/p>\n
Theft by Unlawful Taking<\/p>\n
Quadir Spady<\/p>\n
Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Aggravated Assault<\/p>\n
Elante Outerbridge<\/p>\n
Eli Simmons<\/p>\n
Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Aggravated Assault<\/p>\n
Robbery<\/p>\n
Malik Sweets<\/p>\n
Ivan Williams<\/p>\n
Javon Fisher<\/p>\n
Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Aggravated Assault<\/p>\n
Robbery<\/p>\n
Baseer Johnson<\/p>\n
Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Robbery<\/p>\n
Aggravated Assault<\/p>\n
Aliaan Harris<\/p>\n
Taaj Lennon<\/p>\n
Bryant Cumberbatch<\/p>\n
Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
Aggravated Assault<\/p>\n
Samerah Pendleton<\/p>\n
Conspiracy to Commit Attempted Murder<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a good day for the citizens of Philadelphia, including the residents of South Philadelphia whose neighborhoods have been terrorized by this senseless violence like many other neighborhoods,\u201d said Krasner. \u201cOur office will continue to take down those who perpetrate violence and we will not stop until all Philadelphia neighborhoods feel safe. Thank you to Assistant District Attorneys Bill Fritze, Adam Farraye, and Katherine Reamy,\u00a0the entire DAO\u2019s Gun Violence Task Force, and our law enforcement partners for their thorough and decisive work in this investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bill Fritze, the DA\u2019s chief of the Gun Violence Task Force, added, \u201cThe charges we announced today are the continuation of the efforts we first disclosed a year ago with the sweeping indictments of these gangs based in South Philadelphia. Utilizing a number of methods, the continued investigations of those initial shootings committed in retaliation revealed other targeted shootings in which often innocent bystanders were struck by gunfire. We also thank the individuals whose hard work led to these arrests, specifically Detectives Kelley Gallagher, Patrick Cavalieri, David Gannone, Ryan Moore, Christopher Maitland, Andrew Gallagher, Steven Blackwell, Officers Copestick and Berryman from the Criminal Intelligence Unit, the Attorney General\u2019s Office including Agent Matthew Winscomb, our partners at the FBI and the DIVIC, and Criminal Analysts Amanda McCourtie and Ashley Waples.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aiding the prosecutors in this case were the videos some of the gangbangers placed on Youtube, bragging about the shootings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in the mid and late 1960s, I was a street corner half-a-hoodlum. Our South Philly street corner crew were no angels, and although we were more about girls, dancing, and having fun, there was, admittedly, gang violence. But unlike today\u2019s street gangs, we didn\u2019t revel in it \u2013 and we certainly didn\u2019t brag about it publicly.<\/p>\n
Paul Davis\u2019s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He is also a contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is grandstanding at the Philadelphia airport, leveling silly threats at federal ICE…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[31,336,1856,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-149026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-crime","tag-larry-krasner","tag-law-enforcement","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}