Members of the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples face federal charges for spraying bullets at a group of people during a Father’s Day drive-by in Brooklyn, the feds said Tuesday.
The 2022 shooting, which was one of the “drills” the violent gang would run by driving into enemy turf and targeting groups of young rivals, left a man wounded and sent others scrambling for safety, according to court filings.
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors indicted seven members of the gang, including two leaders, on murder conspiracy and attempted murder charges.
They include Kwame Waddell, a gang leader who goes by the nicknames “Big Homie” and “Big Gun,” who’s already in federal jail awaiting trial for a similar 2022 shooting.
According to the feds, Waddell, who runs the “No Love City” subset of the gang, and six others piled into three cars to go hunting in Canarsie on June 19, 2022.
The shooters — Waddell, fellow gang leader Paolo Alfarobarber, Sebastien Jocelyn and Joel Myrie— got into a stolen orange Dodge Charger, while the others flanked them in decoy vehicles, the feds allege.
The idea was that the decoys, who weren’t carrying guns and would potentially face less serious charges, could slow down and prevent the police from pulling over the Charger.
They zeroed in on a group on E. 94th St., between Avenues L and K and started shooting, hitting a 28-year-old man several times, the feds allege. The man survived.
A half-hour later, the men in the decoy cars, Rahim Frank, Mikey Jemison and Jahi Nimmons, were caught on video rejoining the shooters to celebrate, the feds allege.
Of the seven defendants, only Myrie remains at large. The others were busted in Brooklyn and Bridgeport, Conn., Tuesday morning.
“We allege that, rather than celebrating families on Father’s Day, the defendants terrorized Brooklyn residents by spraying bullets onto a residential street with total disregard for human life,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said.
The feds have built several cases aimed at taking down Folk Nation and No Love City in recent years. Earlier this year, four high-ranking members were sentenced to several decades in prison behind bars for a string of shootings in 2020 sparked by a stolen gold pendant and necklace.
All seven defendants openly brag about their gang affiliations on social media, according to court filings, posting photos of cash, bank checks and guns. Frank, for example, posted about using several bank accounts to “get paid,” which suggest he’s engaged in fraud, the feds allege.
Most of the seven defendants have criminal records, including Waddell, who was paroled in October 2021 after he was sentenced in 2017 to eight years behind bars for attempted murder, assault and other charges.
That sentence covered a series of violent acts, including pulling the trigger in a 2015 shooting and ordering members of his gang to do several drive-bys in 2014 and 2015, according to federal prosecutors.
Waddell remains held in the 2022 federal case, and the remaining defendants, except for Myrie, were ordered held without bail after their arraignments in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Alfarobarber’s lawyer, Pete Guadagnino, said he pleaded not guilty but didn’t comment further.
“Mr. Waddell vehemently denies these allegations. He will plead not guilty and looks forward to fighting the charges in court,” said Waddell’s lawyer John Buza.
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