Gang member pleads guilty in courthouse shooting

BRIDGEPORT — After a day of jury selection, a city man pleaded guilty Friday for his role in a shooting outside the state courthouse in Bridgeport in January 2020, prosecutors said.

Laheem “Heemie” Jones, 27, pleaded guilty before Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity, attempted murder and aiding and abetting. He faces up to 30 years in prison at sentencing, which Arterton scheduled for Feb. 23.

Jones is the last of eight defendants charged in the incident to plead guilty.

The FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service and Bridgeport police have been investigating multiple Bridgeport-based gangs whose members are involved in narcotics trafficking, murder and other violent acts, prosecutors said.

Jones was identified by authorities as a member of the Greene Homes Boyz, a gang based in the Charles F. Greene Homes housing complex and whose members and associates sold heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and Percocet pills, committed acts of violence against rival gang members and other individuals and boasted about their actions on social media sites, prosecutors said.

Members of the gang also intimidated and made threats against potential witnesses to their crimes and to protect gang members and associates from law enforcement authorities, prosecutors said.

From about 2017 to August

2020, the gang was aligned with members of the Original North End, a gang based in the Trumbull Gardens area, against rival groups in Bridgeport, including the East End, East Side, P.T. Barnum and 150 gangs.

In pleading guilty, prosecutors said, Jones admitted he was involved in gang-related drug trafficking and that he and others tried to kill members and associates of the East End gang outside the courthouse in Bridgeport on Jan. 27, 2020.

During that shooting, four victims were wounded after being shot inside a black Chevrolet Impala outside the courthouse. One victim was shot in the side of his chest and left paralyzed, while another victim suffered multiple gunshot wounds to his back, shoulder and wrist. There were 23 bullet holes found in the car.

Jones and others tried to destroy a vehicle used during the shooting by setting it on fire in Naugatuck after the shooting, prosecutors said. He also appeared in YouTube videos and social media posts with guns, promoting the gang, according to prosecutors.

He has been detained since his arrest on Aug. 6, 2020.