East Harlem Gang Members Indicted For 17 Shootings, DA Says

EAST HARLEM, NY — Twelve alleged East Harlem gang members are facing charges in relation to 17 shootings that occurred at neighborhood public housing developments in the past three years, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., announced Friday.

Members of the "Chico Gang" were hit with charges Friday including: conspiracy, attempted murder, attempted assault, gang assault and criminal weapons possession. The gang operated out of the large Wagner Houses development located between Second Avenue and the Harlem River Drive from East 120th to 124th streets, prosecutors said.

"It is our obligation to ensure that New Yorkers in every neighborhood not only are safe, but that they feel safe at all times, too. To that end, our work identifying and dismantling gangs and crews, and preventing the violence so often associated with their activities, continues to be of paramount importance to the NYPD and all our law enforcement partners," Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said in a statement.

Investigators linked 17 shootings over a span of three years to the gang, prosecutors said. The accused gang members discussed criminal activity on social media and in phon calls made from the Rikers Island Correctional Facility, prosecutors said.

The motive behind the shootings was revenge for the 2016 murder of Juwan “Chico” Tavarez and perceived slights at the man after his death, prosecutors said. Six people were injured during shootings at the Jefferson Houses development — located between First and Third Avenues from East 112th to 115th streets — and in the vicinity of the public housing development.

"As alleged in the indictment, these defendants waged a deadly campaign of retaliation, spraying East Harlem with bullets with no regard for the lives of their neighbors or the safety of their community," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., said in a statement.

"Areas of East Harlem have violent crime rates twice as high as the rest of the City, driven in no small part by the individuals indicted today."

Photo by Patch