Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark and New York City Police Commissioner Edward A. Caban announced on Friday, Aug. 2, that 20 people, including five teens, have been charged with various violent crimes that include 14 shootings in the Fordham Heights, Kingsbridge, Highbridge, and Morris Heights areas, as well as a brutal slashing of a young woman outside the “youth part” courtroom inside the Bronx Criminal Court’s Hall of Justice. Prosecutors said at least some of the gang members are seemingly influenced by drill rap music and posted videos on social media about some of the shootings, taunting their rival gang members.

 

Making the announcement, Clark said, “A half-mile swath along the Grand Concourse became a corridor of carnage as these defendants allegedly fired guns again and again, wounding their rivals and at least four bystanders in mindless violence. Their brazenness knew no limits as they even assaulted a young woman in a courthouse hallway. These acts began in 2020, when half of the defendants were under 17 years old. Sadly, they have ruined their own lives as they allegedly wreaked havoc on their community.”

 

Clark said the defendants, 17 male youths and three young women, are part of the Slattery aka “Slaughtery” gang that held sway near Slattery Playground on East 183rd Street in Fordham Heights, and are variously charged in a 176-count indictment.

 

The defendants are Israel Lugo Aka “Izzy” 26, Feenix Charley aka “Fee/Fee Banga,” 24, Nasiem King aka “EBK,” 22, Dayron Williams aka “Dayryer,” 22, Nadine Asamoah aka “Naybenz,” 18, Joseph Illery aka “Jojo,” 20, Shyhiem Martin Chambers aka “Shyloso/Shy, 19, Benito Buxton aka “Nito,” 19, Clarence Roberts aka “Rico,” 18, Jahmeal Martin Weekes aka “Mill,” 23, Brian Cespedes aka “6Shotz/Herbo,” 24, Briana Portalatin aka “Brii Rose,” 19, Keith Douglas aka “Polo,” 24, Rodney Asamoah aka “Roddy,” 20, and Joseph Valdez aka “Chucky SB,” 25.

 

Five other defendants who were 17 or under were identified only as K.R. 17, Y.S., 17, G.M. 17, E.L. 17, and J.L, 16. For his part, Caban said, “Senseless acts of violence have no place in New York City neighborhoods, and eradicating street gangs remains at the forefront of the NYPD’s public safety mission. I commend the meticulous work of our investigators and our partners in The Bronx District Attorney’s office for their tireless efforts to hold accountable anyone who participates in such barbaric criminal acts.”

According to the prosecution, the 18-month investigation by the Bronx District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau and the NYPD Gun Violence Suppression Division, covered a conspiracy involving the gang to obtain guns and commit acts of violence against opposition rival gang members from June 15, 2020, through June 27, 2024.

 

Prosecutors said this included 14 shooting incidents, the slashing inside the Bronx Supreme Court of a rival gang member, a gunpoint carjacking, a stabbing, and gun possessions. They said the investigation revealed that members of the Slaughtery gang utilized various social media platforms, primarily Instagram and Facebook, to threaten rival gang members and promote themselves.

 

They said Slaughtery members and associates posted Drill rap videos on YouTube in which they bragged about shootings and mocked murdered rivals. They said 15 handguns and pistols were recovered during the investigation.

 

According to the prosecution, on June 18, 2020, at Morris Avenue and East 184^th Street in Fordham Heights, the defendants, King and Williams, ran towards a crowd of individuals who were playing cards and King allegedly fired at least six shots at the group, striking three people who were not involved in gangs. The two then fled from the scene. Just a few minutes later, Williams was shot by members of a rival gang and King allegedly returned multiple shots at the rival gang.

 

On July 11, 2020, King and Charley went to East 194^th Street and Briggs Avenue in Fordham Manor, where Charley discharged four shots at a purported rival but struck a passerby instead.

 

On January 27, 2023, Charley and others were in the Bronx Hall of Justice in the Concourse section of The Bronx when they spotted members of a rival gang standing outside the Youth Part on the fifth floor. Charley and the others approached these individuals and began to assault them. Charley allegedly used a sharp object [scalpel] to strike one of the individuals, causing a large laceration from her lower chest area to her abdomen. The victim was taken to a hospital and received 35 stitches.

 

The same day, Charley boasted about the slashing at the courthouse on social media, saying in sum and substance that the courthouse was his territory. A week prior to the incident, Charley had posted a video on Instagram bragging about smuggling in scalpels every time he is in the courthouse and showing viewers how to accomplish this. [He seemingly hid it in his lower lip inside his mouth.]

According to this hiphop history website, drill rap is a subgenre of Hip Hop music that originated in Chicago in the early 2010s, and is sonically similar to the trap music subgenre and lyrically similar to the “gansta rap” subgenre. According to various media sources, early drill artists are noted for their explicit, confrontational style of lyricism and association with crime in Chicago, especially the Black Disciples and Gangster Disciples. Former host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah, breaks down the genre in this YouTube video.

 

As reported, Mayor Eric Adams weighed in on the influence of drill rap on crime in New York City in February 2022, and called on social media companies to ban drill music after an 18-year-old rapper from the genre, Jayquan McKenley, aka Chii Wvttz, was shot and killed outside a recording studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

 

The NY Post later reported that while speaking to pop-culture glossy magazine, Complex for a story, the mayor’s son, Jordan Coleman, said his then-61-year-old dad didn’t totally understand drill music, described in the Post story as a “gritty, nihilistic style of rap that glorifies guns, drugs and violence against rivals.”

 

That February, Adams said he met with a group of Drill rappers, later sharing with the media how the meeting went. “They said, ‘We heard you were going to ban Drill rapping,’ and I did not say that,” said the mayor. “No, I was very clear on what I stated and they came in with a lot of energy. You know, ‘here’s the 62-year-old guy that don’t understand young people and you want to destroy….’ and I let them talk.”

 

The mayor added, “Then I told them what I said, that violent people who are using Drill rapping to post who they killed, and then antagonize the people who they are going to kill is what the problem is. And they heard me, and we’re going to be rolling out something in the next few days to deal with this issue. It was a great conversation. I was happy to have them there.”

 

A press conference was held at the Office of the Bronx District Attorney on Friday, Aug. 2, to announce the various indictments linked to the Slaughtery gang during which, as reported, charges brought against 15 other people, including 14 gang members or affiliates of the 1300 gang, were also announced.

 

Videos of some of the shootings were screened during the press conference and guns seized as part of the arrests were also displayed. Watching back one of the videos again, Clark remarked how it was incredulous how in one of the incidents, the driver of a car is seen obeying traffic laws, putting on the car blinkers while parked temporarily on a street before the car occupants then proceed with their crime.

During the same press conference, Norwood News asked how Charley was able to get a [presumably metal] scalpel through the metal detectors at Bronx Criminal Court [Hall of Justice] to attack his female victim.

 

Clark responded, saying, “Yeah, good question. Well, a lot of times like it’s becoming very sophisticated so it’s [the scalpel] not necessarily metal. They wrap it in things.” Turning to her colleagues in law enforcement, Clark added, “You guys could give more information. They’ll wrap it so it’s undetected. Sometimes they’re plastic so that it won’t be detected as well but the [heat?/inaudible] just felt like regardless of what it is, I’m going to show you how to do it and get it in, and and you see the mayhem that it caused.” A member of law enforcement added, “There are multiple kinds of material.. porcelain, plastic, sometimes metal.”

 

Prosecutors said the 17-count indictment includes second-degree conspiracy, attempted murder in the second degree, first-degree robbery, first-degree assault, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, attempted gang assault in the first degree, second-degree robbery, and other related charges.

 

They said eleven of the defendants have been arraigned before Bronx Supreme Court Justice Tara Collins, and the rest are awaiting arraignment. Asamoah, Illery, Chambers, Buxton, and Portalatin were detained in custody. Bail was set at $100,000 / $600,000 / $600,000 for Weekes. Bail was set at $50,000 / $350,000 /$350,000 for Cespedes, and bail was set at $75,000 / $500,000 / $500,000 for Rodney Asamoah.

 

They said G.M. was detained in custody, bail was set at $25,000 / $250,000 for Y.S. and at $50,000 / $250,000 for E.L. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

The case is being prosecuted on behalf of the Office of the Bronx DA by Keturah Ladd, supervisor in the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, Assistant District Attorney Molly Martin of Trial Bureau 30, Major Case Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Davis of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau, under the supervision of Ronald Sannicandro, deputy chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, and Newton Mendys, chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, and under the overall supervision of Denise Kodjo, deputy chief of the Investigations Division and Wanda Perez-Maldonado, chief of the Investigations Division.

 

Clark thanked Intelligence Analyst Jonathan Mulhern of the Crime Strategies Bureau, Trial Preparation Assistants Victor Ortiz and Sharyann Delacruz of the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, and Mary Jo Blanchard, counsel to the Investigations Division, for their assistance with the case.

Additionally, the district attorney thanked Bronx DA Detective Investigators Deputy Chief Terence Mulderrig and Detective Anai Tamarez for their assistance with the case. Clark also thanked NYPD Detectives Brandon Ravelo and Patriciann Caputo of the Gun Violence Suppression Division, and Detective Eric Bernard of Patrol Borough Bronx, as well as the 46th Precinct public safety police officers, and detectives of the 46th and 52nd squads.

 

She also thanked New York State Court Officers Roland Font and Joel Ramdeen, Sergeant Paul Tammaro, Captain Angelique Fontanez (retired) and Major Eugene Hunter for their assistance with the investigation.