Eighteen alleged Brooklyn gang members who kept a “scoreboard” of shooting tallies have been indicted and charged with conspiring to commit murder and possess weapons, law enforcement officials announced Thursday.
The defendants, mostly in their late teens and early 20s, are allegedly members of an East Flatbush-based street gang with Bloods connections, called the Martense Beverly Bosses, responsible for eight separate shootings and two murders dating back to spring 2016, officials said.
In addition to the shooting scoreboard, the group referred to shootings that missed their targets as “air balls” and called jailed gang members “bench warmers,” according to a news release from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
“These defendants are dangerously obsessed with committing acts of violence. In this case, we allege, they cavalierly discuss shooting at rivals as if they were keeping score at a basketball game,” said Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez in a statement. “But this is not a game. There is a trail of dead and injured victims.”
Gonzalez alleges the gang brazenly opened fire in broad daylight on public streets and in the Kings Plaza Shopping Center as tensions rose with rival gangs over the murder of one of its own members. The shootings resulted in the death of Jerome Spense, a 26-year-old construction worker, in April of this year and Donovan Frazier, 20, last September.
The 18 defendants, held on bail, have been variously charged in a 41-count indictment, which includes charges of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, and face up to 25 years in prison on the top conspiracy count.
“This case perfectly demonstrates the NYPD’s effectiveness in precisely targeting the real drivers of violence in New York City,” said NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill in a statement. “These gang members walked the streets of Brooklyn, guns in their hands, acting as though life and death is some kind of game.”
Indictments include:
- Romel Baptiste, 18, Vandeveer Place, Brooklyn.
- Gymanni Carrington, 17, Pacific Street, Brooklyn.
- Stephon Daly, 19, Avenue D, Brooklyn.
- Jeremy Denaud, 17, Brooklyn.
- Javed Duncan, 17, Lenox Road, Brooklyn.
- Asa Francis, 18, East 58th Street, Brooklyn.
- Kobe Franklyn, 16, East 26th Street, Brooklyn.
- Kahrone Hyde, 18, Pacific Street, Brooklyn.
- Aysia Perez, 19, Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn.
- Demitrius Philemon, 20, Brooklyn Avenue, Brooklyn.
- Harold Phillips, 19, New York Avenue, Brooklyn.
- Jahmel Phillips, 20, New York Avenue, Brooklyn.
- Quentin Raymond, 17, Hart Street, Brooklyn.
- John Rodriguez, 21, Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn.
- Elijah Roy, 18, East 52nd Street, Brooklyn.
- Tyrique Royal, 19, Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn.
- Chyanne Tait, 19, Hancock Street, Brooklyn.
- Name withheld pending arraignment
