Feds indict alleged Bridgeport gang members
BRIDGEPORT — Four alleged members of a city gang have been indicted by a federal grand jury on racketeering and murder charges as part of an ongoing federal, state and local law enforcement effort to round up participants in what officials say is a gang war plaguing the city.
The federal indictment, unsealed Thursday, charges Four men who authorities claim are members of the East End Gang.
Indicted are: 19-year-old Keishawn Donald, 19-year-old Trevon “Tre” Wright, Kyran Dangerfield, 24, and Eric “Heavyweight Champ” Hayes, 24. All four are in federal custody.
“This ongoing investigation is methodically getting to the roots of much of the violent activity Bridgeport has experienced during the last few years,” U.S. Attorney
John H. Durham said Friday. “The allegations in this indictment, combined with charges announced in previous indictments, detail numerous, senseless violent acts committed by members and associates of warring street gangs.”
According to court documents, Donald, Wright, Dangerfield and Hayes are members of the “East End gang,” which began as a local street gang based in the East End of Bridgeport.
The East End gang has been aligned with other groups, including the PT Barnum Gang, the East Side gang and 150, which is a geographic gang based on the West Side of Bridgeport. The groups have been locked in a long-term war against rival gangs in the city, including the “Original North End” (“O.N.E.”) and the “Greene Homes Boyz,” based in the Charles F. Greene Homes
Housing Complex, court documents say.
On Jan. 27, 2020, Wright was shot while sitting in a car outside the Golden Hill Street courthouse. The wounds left him paralyzed, police said. In August 2020, five members of the rival Greene Home Boyz were indicted in connection with that shooting. They are awaiting trial in federal court.
Thursday’s indictment alleges that the East End gang distributed heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and Percocet pills; used and shared firearms and committed murder and other acts of violence against rival gang members and other individuals.
East End members allegedly celebrated their criminal conduct on social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube, and committed acts of intimidation and made threats to deter potential witnesses to their crimes and to protect gang members and associates from detection and prosecution by law enforcement authorities, the indictment states.
Among the violent acts committed by the gang, the indictment alleges that: on Jan. 30, 2018, Donald shot and killed Eric Heard, a.k.a. “Fetti,” a member and associate of the Greene Homes Boyz; on Sept. 18, 2019, Wright shot and attempted to kill Marquis Israel, a.k.a. “Garf” or “Gbaby,” a member and associate of the O.N.E. gang; on Dec. 8, 2019, Wright shot and attempted to kill Arvan Smith, a.k.a. “Arv Barkley,” an associate of the O.N.E. gang; on Jan. 26, 2020, Wright and “JW,” an East End associate who is now deceased, shot and killed Myreke Kenion and shot and attempted to kill D’Andre Brown, both associates of the Greene Homes Boyz; on June 24, 2020, Dangerfield, JW and a juvenile shot and killed Tyler Ballew, a member and associate of the O.N.E. gang and on Oct. 17, 2019, Donald agreed with other East End gang members to shoot and attempt to kill Joshua Gilbert, a member and associate of the O.N.E. gang.
“The cooperation of federal, state and local law enforcement in the Fairfield Judicial District continues to be a model for the protection of the life, liberty and property of the citizens we serve through our focus on the small number of individuals who threaten the safety and security of so many,” said Bridgeport State’s Attorney Joseph Corradino.
“These indictments should be a clear message that we will not allow our communities to continue being plagued by violence,” said Acting Bridgeport Police Chief Rebeca Garcia.