NYC Gang Member Pleads In Shooting Death of Poughkeepsie Bystander

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — A New York City gang member has pleaded guilty to shooting a 16-year-old bystander in the city of Poughkeepsie in 2020 in a killing which led three months later to a retaliatory broad daylight murder of a second minor victim in Poughkeepsie.

“In a tragic three-month stretch in 2020, brutal gang violence between the Bully Hard and Gorilla Stone sets of the Bloods caused two senseless murders of minor victims in Poughkeepsie," Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in an announcement about the plea. "Previously, Gorilla Stone leader Brandon Soto was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for his role in planning out and ordering the retaliatory September 21, 2020, murder of a 15-year-old. Today, thanks to our law enforcement partners and the dedicated prosecutors of this Office, Elijah Bermudez has now admitted to an earlier, June 20, 2020, murder that prompted the retaliatory September 2020 murder. Today’s plea is a reminder that this Office will relentlessly pursue any gangs who threaten the safety of New Yorkers.”

Bystander Frederick Wells was known to his friends and family as “Khabir.” The second victim, killed Sept. 21, was 15-year-old Jalani Jones.

The murders arose out of a dispute between Bully Hard gang members and members of a rival set of Bloods called the Untouchable Gorilla Stone Nation.

From early 2020 to April 2022, Bermudez was a member of Bully Hard, a Bloods subgroup whose members and associates engaged in, among other things, murder, robberies, narcotics trafficking, and fraud in New York City and upstate New York, including in Poughkeepsie. Members and associates of Bully Hard engaged in a series of violent disputes with rivals, as well as those within the gang they deemed disloyal. During these disputes, they committed murder, shootings, and assaults against their rivals and fellow members. They also distributed heroin and marijuana.

On the night of June 20, 2020, Bermudez and another member of Bully Hard got into a physical fight with members of Gorilla Stone, a rival set of Bloods. During the fight, the other gang member confronted a 17-year-old Gorilla Stone member, who was standing with Wells, a friend from school who was not in a gang. Bermudez then stabbed the Gorilla Stone member, picked up his associate's gun, which had dropped to the ground, and shot Wells as Wells tried to run away. Wells was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head.

Bermudez, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison; and one count of conspiracy to possess ammunition after a felony conviction, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, prosecutors said.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román on Oct. 17.