Gang takedown 21 goons in murderous Folk Nation indicted
Members of a gun-toting Brooklyn gang have been indicted on a slew of weapons, robbery and homicide charges including the broad-daylight, mistaken-identity murder of a 15-year-old, authorities said Tuesday.
The 21 people arrested include a father and his two sons, who are all members of two subsets of the violent Folk Nation street gang, which terrorized neighborhoods in Flatbush and East Flatbush for years, according to law enforcement officials.
Over the course of nearly three years, the men were involved in bloody and deadly crimes including murder, attempted murder, assault, weapons possession and reckless endangerment to “establish and maintain their dominance” amid feuds with rival Brooklyn gangs, said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
“These defendants allegedly terrorized the streets of Brooklyn by opening fire on perceived rivals and recklessly firing their guns – including in broad daylight – endangering innocent bystanders,” Gonzalez said. “In one instance, an innocent 15-year-old boy was killed when he was mistaken for a rival gang member.”
Gonzalez was referring to the murder of Rohan Levy, who died three days after he was shot in the head along E. 55th St. near Lenox Road in East Flatbush in 2017.
Neither Rohan nor his three friends were affiliated with a gang, but one of them was wearing red pants and a black jacket, and may have been mistaken for a Bloods gang member when Rohan was shot at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2017, officials said.
Prosecutors have video of the gunman who shot Rohan climbing into a car after the killing.
Zidon Clarke, 17, was arrested in April, and charged with jumping out of a car and squeezing off four shots at Rohan and his friends. A second victim, an 18-year-old friend of Rohan’s, was hit in the leg and survived.
Clarke is among those named in the indictment Tuesday.
Also included is Khaysean Porter, 21, who shot and killed Darren Harrison, 22, an alleged rival, and injured a second person near E. 84th St. in Canarsie on Feb. 5, 2017, according to the indictment.
Those arrested range in age from 17 to 41, and include Walter Porter, 41, who was indicted along with his sons, Keemari, 19, and Khaysean.
The Porters had two dismantled guns, a .40 caliber and a .38 caliber that were used in four shootings, court papers detailed. The weapons were found during a car stop in East New York in 2017.