Baby-faced gang caught on video turning NYC streets into ‘shooting gallery’ as schoolkids, families run for cover
A baby-faced street gang turned a city neighborhood into “a shooting gallery,’’ sending terrified schoolkids scrambling for their lives and stunned bystanders diving under city buses for safety in brazen broad-daylight attacks, authorities said Thursday.
Shocking footage released by the NYPD captured members of the “800 YGz” crew wantonly shooting up playgrounds and city streets crowded with families during a recent turf war that terrorized the West Farms neighborhood.
“They allegedly threatened the lives of schoolchildren, shoppers, along with anyone who walked down the street in daytime, violating the basic right to be safe,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said at a press conference announcing a slew of heinous charges against 20 accused members of the drug-peddling gang.
“These defendants allegedly shot at rival gangs without any regard for the innocent bystanders caught in between them in the line of fire,” said Clark, who was accompanied by NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and Mayor Eric Adams.
“This conspiracy of violence turned the West Farms neighborhood into a shooting gallery.”
The gang was behind 14 separate shootings dating to 2023 that left one rival dead, two others wounded and dozens of innocent New Yorkers ducking for their lives, according to a 73-count indictment unsealed by cops and prosecutors and involving a 2-1/2-year investigation.
One of the suspects involved in the execution was 15 years old at the time, authorities said.
Half of the alleged gangbangers — who go by nicknames such as “Nesty,” “Chapo” and “Africa” — were mere teenagers when they pulled the trigger without regard for innocent bystanders, officials said.
In one caught-on-video shooting Aug. 28, 2023, two of the teens opened fire at 2:55 pm just steps away from a couple and their three young children, forcing the stricken youngsters to take cover behind their parents.
A few months earlier, on April 1, 2023, the gang unleashed a barrage of bullets at 6:30 p.m., firing across the school yard at Middle School 129 on Maples Avenue, sending frightened students scrambling.
On Feb. 23, 2023, two of the reputed gang members were seen firing six shots at a man walking to an MTA bus at 4:42 p.m., with bystanders seen ducking for cover under the bus on surveillance video footage.
In another brazen attack caught on surveillance footage, shortly before 2 p.m. March 1, 2024, the gangbangers stood on the sidewalk and fired a volley of shots at a target getting his hair styled in an East Tremont barbershop. They nearly struck innocent patrons inside. One person was seen crawling along the floor searching for cover as the bullets flew, authorities said.
“Nine illegal guns were recovered in this case, five of which were ballistically matched to shootings in the indictment, Tisch said of the .9mm weapons.
The top cop said eight of the 20 suspects named in the indictment fired a gun at least three times.
For neighborhood residents, the gunplay is part of the violence that has long plagued the area.
“My son has PTSD from all the things that happened in this neighborhood,” local construction worker Antonio Garcia told The Post on Thursday. “He got robbed in front of the house, assaulted at the school and robbed in front of the school. He’s 17.”
“It’s just getting to the point where people are going to take justice into their own hands.”
Angel Rivera, an EMT, lives near MS129, the scene of two of the gang shootings.
“Majority of the time you come out here and all the young kids [are] walking around here with knives and guns, not doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Rivera said. “All you could do is lock your door and hope they [cops] come quick.
“We hear gun shots, fighting, disputes. Sometimes you wonder, ‘Am I gonna come out of the house and get shot?’
“It’s gotten to the point where we’re thinking of moving, selling the house and moving, because it’s bad.”
The charges lodged against the gang in the indictment include murder, manslaughter, attempted murder, robbery, reckless endangerment and illegal weapons possession.
The 800 Ygz, a k a “Young gunnaz,” deal drugs including crack cocaine and run their operation out of 800 E. 180th St., authorities have said.
At least 10 of the latest indicted suspects are currently behind bars, including six who were not named because they are minors. The status of the others was not immediately released.
“This is what recidivism looks like in real life, not just statistics on a page, but the same people committing the same violent acts again and again,” Tisch said.
“I want to stress that this is a very recent spike in violence,” she said. “In the first quarter, the Bronx was down 33% in shootings compared to 2024. But in April, 63% of our citywide shooting incidents have occurred in the borough of The Bronx.
“And nearly 20 percent of all shootings citywide have occurred this month in one precinct, the 4-6. This surge in violence is 100 percent driven by gangs,” the top cop said.
Adams called the recent spike “almost like ‘Groundhog Day,’ ” referring to the Bill Murray flick that keeps repeating events.
The mayor specifically ripped the City Council for moving to disband the NYPD’s tracking Gang Database.
“We have to ask one question: What side are you on?” Adams said.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said the 800 YGz crew has a total of 38 members, 15 of them in the department’s gang database — and have squared off against nearly 200 rivals in their turf war.
“On 14 occasions, someone from this gang was arrested with a firearm,” Kenny said. “On eight occasions, arrested for attempted murder or reckless endangerment.
“You have incidents where 11 of the 20 have allegedly fired a gun, and then more than half have been arrested for robbery, with over 34 separate robberies.”
Meanwhile, Tisch and Clark declined to address questions about the NYPD commish this week chiding the Bronx DA’s office for being soft on car thefts and saying the borough lagged behind the rest of the Big Apple in cutting down on the quality-of-life crime.
