3 more strikes by no-bail gunman: feds
He was set free and allegedly went right back to shooting.
A Brooklyn gang member released without bail in May on an attemptedmurder charge participated in at least three drive-by shootings after being set free, federal prosecutors allege.
Darrius Sutton, 23, was initially arrested in a May 16 shooting in the courtyard of an East New York building that left a man seriously wounded.
Despite the attemptedmurder rap, Sutton (inset) was set free without bail on May 20, the same day of his arrest.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said the lone witness in the case recanted.
“At the time of arraignment, the sole eyewitness had recanted so we did not have sufficient evidence to keep the defendant in custody,” a spokesman for the DA said in a statement.
“The investigation is continuing and we hope other witnesses come forward.”
Less than two months after being sprung, the purported Bloods gang member joined others in three drive-by shootings.
The gunplay took place between July 13 and 14 and were just a few of the six shootings in which Sutton participated in past year, prosecutors allege.
Sutton was seen on surveillance-camera footage in one of the attacks, on April 20, when he sneaked up behind a rival gang member and shot him three times in the back in broad daylight, the DA’s Office said.
The victim narrowly escaped death.
“The defendant’s violent spree over the last year has left at least seven individuals with gunshot wounds,” prosecutors wrote. “That these events did not lead to seven deaths is entirely fortuitous.”
Sutton is now being held in federal custody pending his trial after being arrested again last week.
Shortly after he was released in May, he appeared in a hip-hop music video, uploaded to YouTube, for the song “Crime Rate” by Brooklyn rapper BK Eaz, prosecutors said.
The video is actually an homage to rising crime in New York City in 2020.
At one point, the rapper Billy DntShootEm refers to Sutton by his alleged alias, “Blizz Meecho.”