Bushwick

Twelve Bushwick gang members in turf war charged on 10 separate shootings

June 8, 2017 By Paul Frangipane Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The 12 alleged members of True Bosses Only charged in Operation New Boss. Eagle photos by Paul Frangipane
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In a bloody turf war, 12 alleged Bushwick gang members took to the streets in 10 separate shootings and were busted in a 59-count indictment Thursday.

“This indictment describes a terrifying mix of deadly force and mindless obsessions with turf,” Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. “We will never stop fighting against gun violence and this kind of senseless disregard for the safety of our children and neighbors.”

The True Bosses Only (TBO) gang operates out of Bushwick, extending north and south between Broadway and Wyckoff Avenues, and east and west between Cooper and Madison streets, officials said. A Sept. 27, 2013 shooting death of an alleged former TBO member Bashiek Reddick aka Bless by a rival gang reportedly sparked a war on the streets of Eastern Brooklyn that caused 10 shootings from July 2015 to March 2017 that wounded seven people.

“The True Bosses Only crew is engaged in an ongoing bloody feud with rival crews,” Gonzalez said. “In several of these charged shootings, innocent bystanders have been wounded and other bystanders have narrowly escaped injury.” 

The members, aged 17 to 26, were variously charged with conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, weapons possession and other charges. They could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

As part of an investigation led by Assistant Police Chief James Essig in August 2016, surveillance videos of the shootings were obtained. Gonzalez showed three of the videos at a press conference in his office. 

In one video, the scene shows bystanders sitting on an MTA bus on Oct. 30, 2015 in front of 180 Wyckoff Ave. when a bullet busts through the bus window glass, flying inches in front of a woman, who quickly jumped up when glass cut her face. The alleged shooter was Gilbert Arciliares, 22.

The True Bosses Only have feuds with the gangs Elm Street Piru of Bushwick, Loot of Ocean Hill and 900 of the Sumner Houses.

“These gang shootings don’t take place in far-away battlefields,” Gonzalez said. “They play themselves out unacceptably and tragically on our streets, on our friends, our neighbors and our children.” 

In another video, alleged members of TBO could be seen in front of a food market on Knickerbocker Avenue in Elm Street Piru territory, when Hector Lleras, 26, allegedly shot from the sidewalk to the street, barely missing a man walking nearby and penetrating the window of a parked car, narrowly missing a man in the driver seat. Neither of the men who were almost shot were Lleras’s alleged targets.

Of the 62 members of TBO, according to Essig, nine of these shooters have been arraigned, two have yet to be and one has yet to be arrested. The 12 arrest warrants were issued on June 1.

Essig said that 90 percent of guns in New York come from out of state. Many of these guns come up the “iron pipeline” a route from the South were gun laws are more lax.

Other alleged gang members in the indictment include: Carlos Lucas, 22, Patrick Tucker, 25, Tyrece Findlay, 20, Malik Cherry, 20, Anthony Gooding, 21, Yasin Shearin, 19 and Jamar Lovander, 26.

In the last video, Arciliares can be seen allegedly shooting a woman on the street on Myrtle Avenue in March 2017 in broad daylight.

Gonzalez, who referred to the alleged gang members as “drivers of crime,” said about the woman, “That bullet is still inside her to this very day.”

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