32 Charged In Massive Bust Of Brooklyn Gangs 'Wooo' And 'Choo': DA

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A Brooklyn gang war that saw a three-year-old girl take a bullet and a gang member speed from hit-and-run to a Saks Fifth Avenue shopping spree came to an abrupt end this week as part of a major bust from the District Attorney's office, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Thirty-two suspects from two warring rival Brownsville gangs — the "Wooos" and the "Choos" — were arrested on a slew of charges ranging from conspiracy to murder after an investigation that's been running since 2020, said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.

“With this successful takedown we aim to incapacitate two violent gangs that have terrorized parts of Brownsville for too long,” Gonzalez said.

“Their senseless and indiscriminate gun violence upended the sense of safety for many residents and wounded a number of innocent bystanders, including a 3-year-old-girl who was leaving her daycare center.”

Operation Close Quarters — so named because the two gangs lived in along a dense stretch of Mother Gaston Boulevard between East New York and Lott avenues — began after the murder of a gang member in 2020, prosecutors said.

Acts of violence across the disputed gang territory — which includes schools, parks, libraries and homes —were frequently captured on surveillance cameras or boasted of on social media, according to prosecutors.

Daleek Habersham, a suspected Choo gang member, stands accused of wounding a little girl who had just been picked up from daycare last March, prosecutors said.

The 3-year-old was holding the hand of the man Habersham aimed for when he missed and shot her in the shoulder, said prosecutors.

Habersham later sent a screenshot of a news article about the shooting to a private Instagram group, prosecutors contend.

His note, according to prosecutors, read: “did bad.”

Another violent act in the gang war occurred on in April 2021 when Davvion Thompson, who prosecutors say is a member of the rival Wooo gang, rammed his Hyundai Sonata into a rival Choo member crossing a nearby street, according to the District Attorney's office.

Thompson then accelerated his Sonata and sped off as his target shot at his car, said prosecutors.

From there, Thompson drove straight to Saks Fifth Avenue, the DA’s office claims, where he was captured on store surveillance cameras enjoying a day of shopping with a group of people.