'Mermaid Boy' Charged In 2010 Flatiron Double-Homicide

FLATIRON, NY — A member of the “Mermaid Boys” gang was indicted Thursday for the 2010 killing of two rival gang members near Union Square, federal prosecutors said.

Nabiu Mansaray was indicted for the double homicide on Thursday, more than seven years after two men were killed while sitting in car outside of the Roam lounge at 5 E. 19th St. Another “Mermaid Boy,” Frank Smith, was arraigned on similar charges last year, prosecutors said.

Mansaray and Smith shot the two men in the head as they sat inside their car on 19th Street in October 2010, authorities said. The two men they killed, Terrance Serrano and Rashawn Washington, were members of a rival gang, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.

Authorities believe that Mansaray and Smith opened fire in retaliation, believing their targets had been involved in a 2009 drive-by shooting of a different Mermaid Boy, federal prosecutors said.

Mansaray, 33, also faces charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and a gun crime. Mansaray was transported on Thursday from Maryland, where was arrested by the FBI last month, to Brooklyn for his arraignment. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Officials have described the Mermaid Boys as a gang that “terrorized” the Coney Island neighborhood with drugs and violence. In addition to the fatal shootings, Mansaray, Smith and the broader Mermaid Boys gang trafficked drugs and committed attempted murders, assaults, robberies and other acts of intimidation, federal prosecutors said.

Patch was not immediately able to contact Mansaray’s attorney on Thursday.

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