B’klyn murder gang ‘takedown’
17 to face justice in four homicides and 14 shootings
A trio of gangs formed a strategic alliance and took part in more than a dozen shootings and four killings, the Brooklyn district attorney charged Tuesday, announcing the arrest of 17 people.
One member of the criminal coalition is accused of taking part in three murders over a three-month span, when the suspect was just 16.
The supergang was formed out of three crews — Young and Wild and Hustling, Pistol Packing Pitkin and Fort N—-as Only — that joined forces to dominate East New York, Brownsville and Fort Greene. They called themselves YPF and hoped by teaming up they would gain greater geographic dominance and access to guns, according Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
“They shoot on sight . ... This is the insidious part of the gang culture,” Gonzalez said. “This successful takedown is part of our ongoing strategy to reduce shootings and senseless deaths by targeting the most violent offenders.”
The newly formed gang boasted more than 200 members and was responsible for four killings and 14 shootings, authorities charge.
Gonzalez highlighted a trio of fatal shootings connected to YPF, including the October 2020 killing of Sherard Jamie
McKoy, a college student slain outside a bodega because he was wrongly identified as an opposition gang member.
Iquan Warlick, 17, was arrested two months after the murder outside the New Lots Ave. bodega on Oct. 28, 2020. Nakhai Addison, 17, was charged with murder as an accomplice as part of the takedown.
McKoy was in the bodega waiting for food with his friend, a rival of the Fort N—as Only gang.
After a fistfight inside the bodega, McKoy escaped but was chased and shot to death by Warlick, prosecutors charge. McKoy’s friend escaped with his life, getting away by crawling into the back of the bodega as bullets whizzed by.
“McKoy was wrongly perceived to be a rival gang member because he was with a friend who was a gang member. He was not,” Gonzalez said. “He was shot because he was in East New York in opposition territory.”
Less than a month later, Warlick and George Risher Jr., another member of the YPF gang, and at least two other unidentified people, went to a birthday party in East New York for a 16-year-old after hearing rival gang members would be in attendance, prosecutors said.
One of the unidentified individuals shot at a group outside the party and hit someone in the leg, authorities said.
Later that night, the four crew members went to Crown Heights where the party had relocated to a building on Albany Ave.
Risher and another gang member went up to the third floor of the building and shot at partygoers, killing Daijyonna Long, 20, who was visiting from Virginia, prosecutors say.
Warlick remained in the lobby, where he and another unidentified person shot at people getting out of the elevator, injuring two. Horrific surveillance video released Tuesday shows one victim desperately trying to close the elevator doors. But Warlick gets his hand in before the elevator could shut.
The two then tussle in the lobby as Warlick tries to shoot the rival, the video shows. Warlick in September 2021 was charged with murder for his involvement in Long’s death.
On Tuesday, Warlick was charged with murder for the death of Wayne LaFontant, 23, who was fatally shot at a Fort Greene housing project in September 2020. He was an accomplice of the alleged gunman, Ziquan Thompson.
Warlick also fatally shot Kendale Hamilton in August 2020 while Hamilton was “armed and pursuing Iquan Warlick,” according to the indictment. Warlick was charged with criminal possession of a weapon but not murder, in that case.
Also swept up in the two indictments was Giovanni Bennett, 17, who prosecutors say was responsible for a terrifying midday shooting in downtown Brooklyn that injured a bystander who was an NYU student.
Bennett allegedly rode up into the middle of MetroTech Mall on Sept. 21, 2021, around 3 p.m. on a Razor scooter, pulled a gun and began firing at a rival gang member. Throngs ran for cover as bullets flew in the crowded area, video shows.
“These guns were in the hands of bad people that did bad things to good people,” said Mayor Adams, who announced the charges along with Gonzalez.
“It’s the gangs and the guns. That is the problem. Everyday New Yorkers in this borough of 2.6 million were held hostage.”
The defendants were set to be arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court later Tuesday.