They’re the gangs that couldn’t shoot straight.
A bumbling baby-faced Bronx gang accidentally killed one of its own in a gunfight with a rival group — and its foes later fired 17 shots at one of them but missed, instead grazing a passer-by in the head, officials said Monday in announcing a takedown of some of the members.
A member of the bungling gang that shot the innocent victim even admitted in a drill rap video just how badly the hit was botched — rapping, “I don’t know how we missed them,’’ authorities said.
“This is a lost generation,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said at a press conference unveiling the sweeping 208-count indictment against 19 members of the warring 9Raq and Thirdside gangs — none older than 23, with the youngest just 16.
“Youth are shooting people right here, right outside our very courthouses,” Clark said. “They turn 161st Street, two blocks from Yankee Stadium, into a war zone.
“The Bronx is bleeding, and I’m doing everything within my power to make it stop.”
The young thugs committed a slew of crimes ranging from murder to grand larceny over the past four years in neighborhoods such as Claremont and Belmont — with adult gang members passing them their loaded weapons to take advantage of the state’s “Raise the Age” law that protects minors, authorities said.
But the move may have come with a price.
Alleged 9Raq member Nixon Rodriguez was fatally shot by a member of his own young crew June 2, 2023, on Olinville Avenue during a failed mission in rival gang territory, prosecutors said.
Last month, a Thirdside defendant also posted a drill rap music video to his Instagram admitting he took part in a botched shootout with 9Raq near a middle school in the early afternoon of March 30, authorities said.
At least 17 shots were fired, but none of them hit their intended rival gang members. Instead, a bullet grazed a 22-year-old man in the head as he was driving by the corner in his car, Clark said.
“I don’t know how we missed them,” the Thirdside gang member allegedly rapped in the video.
Multiple bystanders have been hit during other shootouts between the gangs, too, authorities said.
When the two gangs exchanged gunfire Aug. 2, 2022, on Finley Avenue, at least one of the shots struck a 34-year-old passer-by in the lower back, officials said.
During another 2022 shooting, a 75-year-old innocent man was wounded in the thigh, Clark said.
Six people were arrested last week in the gangs’ takedown, while four gang members remain on the lam, and 10 others are already behind bars for other charges, prosecutors said.
“There’s an endless flow of young people who believe as though they don’t have a stake in tomorrow, so they are creating a reckless disregard on our streets,” said Mayor Eric Adams at the press conference, which was also attended by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
“And when a bullet leaves the pathway of a gun, it often hits an unintended target,” said Adams, a former cop.
Adams, Clark and Tisch said the state needs to re-examine its “Raise the Age” law, which changed the age at which a child can be prosecuted as an adult. That age went from 16 to 17 in 2018 and from 17 to 18 in 2019, allowing those under 18 to be turned over to the family court system instead of regular court, where they could face stiffer punishments if convicted.
“One of [the indicted suspects] has allegedly pulled the trigger at least four times. These aren’t kids who just made one mistake,” Tisch told reporters.
“The takeaway is clear,” she said. “our Raise the Age law needs to be re-examined because it removed the criminal consequences that prevent teens from escalating violence until they or their rivals are either dead or facing adult sentences.”
Out of the gang members arrested, three have been arraigned and held without bail, one has been arraigned with bail set, and another has been arrested and is pending arraignment.
An additional Jane Doe, who was a part of the takedown but not charged as a gang member, was arraigned and held on bail.
The post Bumbling baby-faced NYC gangs that accidentally shot one of their own, hit bystanders get nailed by cops appeared first on New York Post.
