On July 3, 2025, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch announced a major gang takedown targeting the violent crew known as R2R (Road 2 Riches), responsible for at least 10 shootings, including one homicide, in East New York and Brownsville. The long-term investigation led to the indictment of nine suspects, significantly reducing gun violence in two of Brooklyn’s most impacted precincts. Officials credited precision policing, community partnerships, and advanced technology for driving Brooklyn’s shooting incidents to historic lows in 2025. Mayor Adams emphasized the urgent need for legislative support, while DA Gonzalez introduced prevention efforts like Project Restore to help young people exit gang life.
Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes Public
Safety-Related Announcement
With Brooklyn DA Gonzalez and NYPD Commissioner Tisch
Eric Gonzalez, District Attorney, Kings County: Good morning everyone. I want to thank you all for being here. I’d like to thank the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, for being here, as well as our Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, for joining us. It’s great to see all of you again, and I’m particularly grateful that the mayor and police commissioner found the opportunity to stand with us again on this important case.
This case exemplifies the ability for the Kings County District Attorney’s Office and the NYPD to coordinate together to help reduce crime and keep our city safe. I want to also acknowledge the detectives, who the police commissioner will introduce and talk about, but also the prosecutors who worked very tirelessly on this case.
This work is extremely difficult work in putting together past shootings and homicides, and so I am grateful for the team. In particular, the prosecutors who worked very hard on this case are Omar Harding, Katerina Kuterva, and Matt Boland, also with their supervisors, who are standing here today.
Today’s topic, once again, is gun violence, and what we’re doing here in Brooklyn, coordinating with the New York City Police Department in trying to prevent gun violence and, in fact, reduce it. Last time we got together, earlier this year, I was happy to report that 2024 was, in fact, the safest year in Brooklyn’s history in terms of shooting incidents and shooting victimization.
Brooklyn has never had fewer shootings than we had last year, and six months into 2025, I am confident that with half the year past us, in the midst of the summer, that we can actually improve on the numbers that we had last year, that we can actually get safer.
As you can see on the graphics there, that’s where we’ve been over the last several years in terms of shooting incidents. What you see is a historic drop in homicides. Homicides are down nearly one-third from where they were at this point last year. Shooting incidents are down by 20 percent, and shooting victims are down by 15 percent. And again, that’s from record lows of 2024.
These numbers mean something profound. Lives have been saved and families have been spared the anguish and unforgettable grief of having a loved one shot. More Brooklyn residents are walking the streets with a sense of safety, and I know that that is the priority for our police commissioner and for our mayor.
And what’s meaningful to me as Brooklyn district attorney is what the graph also shows, is a persistent and ongoing trend of decline in this violence that we’ve seen year after year. We’re determined to continue to build on that. Today’s case will allow us to improve on the conditions in two of the neighborhoods that are typically the hardest hit in gun violence, which is the 75th Precinct in East New York and the 73rd Precinct in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
So today we report tremendous success at the halfway mark. The credit goes to the New York City Police Department, to the hard-working women and men that work at the Brooklyn Prosecutor’s Office, and to many of the community-based organizations and violence interrupters who partner with the Police Department and with our office, doing a lot of work on the ground to reduce tensions, to de-escalate conflicts, to provide services, and to offer ongoing support to our community members.
This is a victory for everyone who cares about public safety. Gang takedowns, like the one we’re announcing today, are an important part of this enforcement strategy in reducing crime. Unfortunately, we’ve seen after every one of these cases, crime is reduced. I say unfortunately because I wish that we had success without the use of takedowns, but time after time, shootings drop immediately following a significant gang takedown.
In this case, we’ve already started to take action against the shooters before the course of this long-term investigation. We’ve seen that shootings have been, in fact, reduced in places like Brownsville by a big margin so far this year. I want to talk about this particular case now. Let’s look at the accused. These are the small number of men that were responsible for much of the shooting violence in East New York.
There are nine defendants charged in this conspiracy. They call themselves R2R, Road 2 Riches. It’s a young crew. You can see by their faces, these tend to be teenagers and older teenagers. They’re based out of 398 Sheffield Avenue, which is a property in East New York, part of the Unity Houses. Let’s go to the next screen.
Here’s a map of the 75 and 73 precincts, East New York and Brownsville. I’ll orient you to the green rectangle in the center where it says R2R. That is the home base. 398 Sheffield Avenue is in that area, and that is the home base for this young crew, R2R. If you look towards Brownsville, you’ll see Territory marked WOOO and CHOO. To the north, something called PPP. That’s in East New York, and that’s the Pistol Packin Pitkin Crew. On the bottom is something called WAG, another gang that’s in the south part of East New York.
When you look at the map, the one thing that you see is that R2R is surrounded by other crews and gangs that are hostile to them. The one thing that stood out to me in the course of this investigation, looking at the number of shootings that took place in East New York over the past couple of years, is that much of the violence is associated with different crews.
R2R, that gang, seems to be fighting with everyone. They’re in the middle of it. You can see PPP is only about a block or two away from them. That is their primary adversary at this moment, but again, they’ve been fighting with everyone. A number of these shootings during this investigation have pointed to this particular gang beef.
When you look at the consequences of this, what we’re seeing during the course of the investigation, and this investigation is looking at a two-year window. There are going to be ten shootings that we have charged these nine men with. One of them was a fatal homicide. Typically, what we’re seeing is really obscene violence, violence in the middle of the day where other people are walking the streets. That’s the problem, I think, with this particular thing. Many, many people are being jeopardized by the action of such a small number of young people.
I’m going to talk about the homicide first. The incident took place inside a bodega where we allege that the defendant, Mr. King Downing, who is the shooter in this case, Jevonte James, and Quinn Parker, as well as other associates that were not part of this indictment from R2R, were inside a bodega buying some stuff and basically hanging out.
The video is going to show that at some point, we allege that King Downing reaches into his waistband after seeing two people that he identifies as potential rivals entering the bodega. He pulls out a gun and shoots. Before we play the video, what you’re going to also see is that the victim was peering into the bodega. He’s looking. He’s also waiting for someone to come and meet him there. That turned out to be his brother, and they both peer into the bodega before trying to enter it.
Upon entering the bodega, Mr. King Downing shoots, and a 24-year-old man, Mr. Ba loses his life. He’s shot in the face. His brother is alleged to be involved with a rival gang of R2R, and so you’ll see that our belief is that the primary motivation in this case was gang violence. Let’s watch the videos, and you’re going to also pay attention to how the victim and his brother were dressed that day. Let’s play the video.
[Video plays.]
The victim and his brother are both wearing hoodies and face coverings. They seem to be cautious before entering the location. This may raise questions, but the fact is, when the police got there, and I’m watching on the video, neither men were armed. The victim didn’t have a weapon, that’s for sure. And the brother, we never lost sight of him on video. It does not appear that he ever had a weapon, and when the police arrive, he’s unarmed.
This is part of the fact of life in places like East New York and Brownsville, that many young men are very careful before entering locations. They’re always masked up, wearing hoodies, because they’re afraid that if they’re identified by rival gang members, they will be shot on sight. That fear of young men in places like East New York and Brownsville leads to the violence in our communities.
Men are afraid to go from one part of the neighborhood to another, from one basketball court to another, from one housing development to another. And it causes men who are fearful of their lives to be armed, and that makes us all unsafe.
Shortly after the murder, the members of this crew, R2R, posted this photo on Instagram. You see the photo to your right, it’s a social media post. The alleged shooter, Downing, is in this photo, so are some of the other members that were inside the bodega that day, Jevonte James and some of the other men that were in there.
The top line here, and I know it’s not very easy to see, but the top line is an admission. It says, “Your homie died, them shots on us.” And then it says a bunch of things, Free 98 stands for their home base, 398 Sheffield. 98ers basketball team, there’s a reference to shooters on social media. There’s always a lot of reference to basketball emojis for their shooters.
Now, typically, when someone commits a homicide or a murder, they don’t want to be identified as the person who did it. But in this gang violence arena, people need to take credit for the shooting of rival gang members, and this is what you see here. This stuff here, social media, has allowed gangs to antagonize, challenge, and stir up violence with their rivals. It is one of the biggest threats to public safety, because as these shootings take place and people are antagonized, ordinary New Yorkers could be caught in the cross of this rivalry.
In this particular investigation, the range of victims ranged from as young as 14, Mr. Ba was 24, and you’re going to learn that a 68-year-old woman was also struck by bullets. There are a couple of other Instagram posts. I’m going to go through them quickly, because it just emphasizes the point that they want to stir it up on social media. Social media is used to antagonize and fuel the violence in our city.
The left one is from Jevonte Jame’s account, the right one is from Quinn Parker’s account. Both are references to smoking on Ba, the victim in this case. Smoking on someone is a sign of disrespect, it’s also a play on words. If you look at the post that says, “Pass the Ba, we smoke that.” It’s also a play on words that, you know, old-fashioned, you smoke someone, it means to kill them.
They’re taking credit for the shootings. They want everyone to know that they’re the ones who did this. The social media continues to perpetuate violence, disrespect of the deceased and their opium, and, you know, continuing the cycle of opposition. Inviting revenge and fueling a senseless gang war, because that’s what this is. It’s a senseless, dangerous gang war.
Alright, let’s move on to the next clip. The first clip shows a person, Mr. Ortiz, that is being charged in this indictment. And as DeAnthony Ortiz, he comes down. There are a bunch of young ladies in the hallway of the building. He’s angry, we allege, because he thinks that they’ve been hanging out with opposition gang members. He’s already had a physical alteration with some other women about the same thing, and he leaves. Let’s play the video.
[Video plays.]
Unfortunately, also there was a 68-year-old woman and her husband. They were going food shopping, and she was struck in the back by the bullet. Thankfully, she’s recovering and is going to be okay. It’s not shocking that the victim in this case was hit because they’re shooting in broad daylight, shooting across great distances. It’s very likely that they’re going to miss. They intend to target and hit someone else.
And this kind of indiscriminate gun violence is what makes people in Brooklyn afraid. And this is why this indictment is so important. And we should also indicate that these are cases that typically are getting solved without victims coming forward. This is done through the painstaking work that the detectives in the case, in this particular case, and the prosecutors did to pull this video out and to go back and look at hours and hours of video across that part of Brooklyn to be able to identify the shooters.
The next shooting we’ll see is another example of gang members traveling again to rival territory to find someone to shoot. We call that spinning. This one was in PPP territory. You’ll see this video. There’s three members of R2R, the guy that’s apparent to the video right now standing to the left of the tree. He identifies two rival gang members or people he thinks are rivals, and he alerts his friends. So let’s play the video.
[Video Plays.]
Again, in broad daylight. And if you can see, there are other people scrambling to get out of harm’s way. This behavior is unacceptable. No one, no one should have to live with the fear of bullets whizzing by them. And the last video I want to show you is from a few months . You’re going to see a young man named Mikeem Echevarria. And he’s leading a housing development that’s in WOOO territory.
He’s there to visit, we allege, family members that live in that building. But he notices a rival, and he starts to chase him. I think what’s interesting and disturbing is that as he starts to chase the rival and starts shooting again in broad daylight as other people around, he’s skipping and jumping like he’s enjoying himself. Let’s watch the video.
[Video plays.]
Again, multiple shots were fired in this case. What you see now is the Uber. If you see the windshield, the windshield has a bullet hole. If you look very carefully into the passenger side, you’re going to see a bullet hole that entered the car and hit the passenger side headrest, the front headrest. What you don’t see, and what is crazy, is that there were three people, passengers in the car besides the driver.
There was a man and his two young daughters sitting in the back seat. To the grace of God, that bullet hits the passenger headrest and does not injure any of the passengers or the driver of that Uber.
Those are the videos that I intend to show. I will say this, this investigation, because we wanted to get a number of these young men off the street before the summer has kicked off. We know that violence rises during the summer historically in New York City and in Brooklyn. We thought it was important to take these shooters off.
We’re continuing to investigate a number of the other shootings that have been implicated by this investigation. I think we’re going to see additional charges and more cases against a lot of these young men involved in this group. East New York is important to us in Brooklyn. It has always historically been either number one or number two in the city in terms of gun violence. Making sure that the residents of East New York are safe is my highest priority as DA.
We want to make sure that this young crew is taken off the street not to hurt anyone else. It’s a dangerous crew. I take no satisfaction in arresting teenagers and young people. But this crew, they’re rash, they’re impulsive, and they’re obsessed with guns. They don’t care who’s around when they open fire. And the fact that we were able to get them off the streets during still the early part of this summer means that we will slow the criminal activity of the R2R gang.
I think that this takedown will further reduce violence in East New York and Brownsville. It will continue to allow us to lead this city in ways that improve public safety. And that’s why we went ahead and made the arrest. But I don’t want anyone to think that this is the only action that’s going to be coming out of this case.
We’ll continue to investigate these cases. We go back and solve these old cases because I understand, having grown up myself in East New York, that unless there is action that holds these young men accountable for these shootings, the streets will retaliate. In order to have safety, we have to make sure that these cases are solved. And I want to thank the New York City Police Department once again for helping us get to this point today.
Earlier today, I sent a letter to community members in East New York and Brownsville explaining the investigation and the actions we took today. And to continue to allow them to know that there is other options for young people beyond being involved in gang activity. And so we want to make sure that just because we remove these young people, that new young people don’t enter the role of shooters of gangs.
And so the mayor and the City Council have agreed to help sponsor a gang and gun violence prevention program in the Brownsville, East New York area, starting soon. And I put it out there to any of the young members who are watching this takedown video today, that we are willing to offer services, we’re willing to meet you halfway if you lay down your guns.
The strategy has been working very well so far. We focus on the violent offenders. We invest in technology so that we can build these cases. We engage with community members to become part of the solution. And I hope that Brooklyn will become safer than it’s ever been. The mayor and I were talking briefly before the presser that the city is so much safer than it was when we first started our careers in the 90s or 2000s. In fact, it’s so much safer that it’s hard to imagine. But we still have so much more work to do.
Knowing and speaking to families that have lost loved ones to gun violence, the stats do not speak to the anguish. The stats do not speak to the loss of the sense of safety of community members. But I really want to double down and say that over the last several years, we’ve prevented hundreds of shootings through these gang takedowns. And I want to specifically acknowledge the Gun Violence Suppression Division of the NYPD.
So thank you again to all the detectives and the investigators, prosecutors and analysts who worked on these cases. This case will make a big difference. We’re going to hear from our mayor first and then our police commissioner. And then they’ve agreed to take on-topic questions. Thank you.
Mayor Eric Adams: Thanks so much District Attorney Gonzalez and your amazing team. The product that you have produced here in Brooklyn is going to be duplicated throughout the entire city. We sat down earlier this year to talk about some of the work that you’re doing. This is the fruit of your labor.
Your ability to take down Road 2 Riches is going to ensure that the avenues of East New York are safer. Think about Livonia Avenue, Pitkin Avenue, Sutter Avenue. Anyone that is associated with law enforcement will know the history of the 75th precinct. The 75th precinct has always been known as a place where hardworking New Yorkers attempt to raise their children and families. We had a numerical minority number of people who participated in illegal behavior.
And many of them are repeated offenders. And as the police commissioner has often talked about, the Raise the Age law that was passed, as well as bail reform, as well as discovery. All of the laws that take place in the sterilized environment of our legislative chambers have really impacted the ability to have the public safety that the people of the city deserve and desire.
And there are many roads and rivers, as I would say, that feed the sea of violence. And this office here in Brooklyn has attempted to dam each river with their Project Restore that we were able to fund. An innovative way of not only prosecuting cases but giving gang members a way out, allowing them the opportunity to turn their lives around.
And when you hear about the individual stories, those gang members that find a way to go back and help their fellow members who are now still in gangs, this is the type of prosecutorial responsibility that is needed all over the city. And we cannot thank you enough, DA, for what you are doing on both ends, both proactive and reactive. Intervention and prevention is the key to carry this out.
But there are a number of other things that this case study of the takedown, I believe, is clear. Number one, if you notice in many of the shootings, you’re seeing individuals who are wearing masks. The failure to come up with clear legislation to turn back the mask law is a real problem. Hiding behind a mask allows individuals to have continuous levels of violence in our streets. And we are calling on the City Council to pick up our bill, because the state lawmakers refuse to act accordingly. The City Council, pick up our bill, and it’s time to remove these masks off our streets.
The second that I think is important are the gangs. The failure to address the gang database, the commissioner has talked about it over and over again. It is a useful, powerful tool to prevent the reoccurrent violence that we’re seeing with gang members. Identifying them early can attempt to allow us to stop the retaliatory shootings. Those retaliatory shootings are major problems that we are seeing in the city. And I’m sure if we do an analysis of those who were involved, many of them probably have either open cases or cases from the past.
The revolving door criminal justice system of a small number of repeated offenders is having a major impact on the safety of our city. And what makes it remarkable of what this office has done of breaking historical lows in violence is that they have carried this out with all of the impediments that you are seeing, those who are making these decisions outside the span of the control of the law enforcement community.
And in spite of all of that, we’re seeing record numbers of decrease in shooters, record numbers of decrease in homicides, record numbers of the seven major crime categories in the city continue to decrease and go down. What we could do if we will only have partners in the other parts of the criminal justice apparatus, we will be able to not only make this the safest big city in America, we will make it the safest city in America.
And so my plea today is that we need help. We need help from our state and city lawmakers and our federal lawmakers, because none of the guns you see laid out here on the table, none of them were manufactured in the State of New York. We need to stop the flow. We need stronger federal laws to deal with the flow of guns. We need our criminal justice partners to make the right decision on every level of those who are committing repeated violence. And we need our lawmakers to make sure the laws that they have passed do not collide with the job that we’re trying to do.
The idealism can’t collide with the realism of public safety. New Yorkers must be safe. It’s a prerequisite to our prosperity. It is my North Star. I have never moved away from the importance of this city being safe from the days of being a police officer to now. These nine gang members, it’s really not only an indictment on their action, it’s an indictment on our city.
Younger and younger people are becoming victims of crimes and participating in crime. And what this District Attorney’s Office is doing is looking at both pathways. What he has done with Project Restore must be a model across the city. And what he is doing today, telling those who are not going to restore their lives, they’re going to have to deal with the criminal justice system and his prosecutorial powers. It’s a model we must all duplicate.
So I thank you, and I thank all those who are involved. I thank your office. I thank the gun suppression unit. And I thank the police commissioner for a commitment and dedication of focusing on those hot spots so that we can identify the problems we’re having. The deputy mayor of public safety for his role in this.
And I could not help to look to the left of you. They’re off the camera, but those three young men, they’re probably interns that are here in your office. That is who we’re fighting for. That is our future. And the opportunities of allowing them to be interns here, to be here in this press conference and watch you and I as leaders in this city, it is something that’s going to inspire them. They can be part of the gang of safety and not the gang of violence. And so, again, I want to thank you for what you’re doing in this office. I’m going to bring up Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Okay. Good morning, everyone. Today, we are announcing the takedown of nine violent gang members associated with the group calling themselves Road 2 Riches or R2R. As of now, seven of those individuals are in custody and two remain outstanding with our warrants section on the case.
These gang members are responsible for at least ten separate shootings across East New York and Brownsville, including one homicide and a particularly egregious case where a 68-year-old woman, an unintended target, was shot in the back while walking home with her husband in the middle of the afternoon.
What makes this case even more disturbing is not just the violence, but the casual and brazen way that it was carried out, in broad daylight, near schools, across busy New York City streets, with no regard for who else might be caught in the crossfire.
Every single subject charged in the case has been involved in a shooting. Three of them have allegedly pulled the trigger on multiple occasions, and all of them have histories with firearms. And it’s worth saying this isn’t an isolated case. So far this year, the NYPD’s Detective Bureau has conducted more than 40 such gang-related takedowns, dismantling crews like Trenderagua, Los Diablos, 9RAQ, Third Side, and the 18th Street Gang, and today we add R2R to that list.
These takedowns have resulted in over 300 arrests and the recovery of over 230 illegal guns. That builds on the more than 2,600 guns we’ve taken off the streets this year, and the more than 22,300 since our public safety mayor, Mayor Eric Adams’ administration began. This is the kind of proactive, targeted policing that continues to drive crime down to record lows, and it is working.
We just closed out the first half of 2025 with the fewest shooting victims ever recorded in New York City in the first six months of the year. Hooray. And we tied the all-time low for the total number of shooting incidents. But as the Brooklyn DA said, 2024 had been the safest year on record for gun violence in the borough of Brooklyn. And so far, midway through 2025, we are 20 percent below 2024’s shooting levels in Brooklyn. That’s unbelievable.
That is the result of great, strong collaboration between the NYPD and the DA’s office, smart strategy, relentless investigations, and precise enforcement, especially against violent crews like R2R. Seven of the nine defendants in this indictment were involved in shootings while under the age of 18. Three of them committed their first shooting at the age of 15. And the defendant charged with the murder in this case was just 16 years old at the time of his crime.
This is part of an alarming trend that the mayor just spoke about, and we continue to watch closely after the enactment of the Raise the Age law. From 2018 until now, arrests of children under 18 with guns are up 136 percent. Confirmed shooters under the age of 18 are up 92 percent. And young victims are up 81 percent. Those numbers speak for themselves, and they point to a system where accountability has been weakened by this change in the law, and gangs have adapted by targeting younger recruits.
But let’s be clear. While we will always advocate for smart reform, we also need real consequences when young people pick up guns and use them. Because the moment someone pulls a trigger, age is no longer the most important factor in the conversation. The gun is. And of course, detectives in this case were aided by our criminal group database to understand rivalries and affiliations. That kind of intelligence is what sharpens our casework and helps drive precise policing. And it is yet another reason why we need the City Council to stop legislating against us.
Finally, I want to thank Detective Brian [McGurn], who led this case. And I also want to acknowledge Deputy Inspector Craig Edelman and the entire team at our Gun Violence Suppression Division. Nine takedowns this year alone is no small feat. And of course, our good DA Eric Gonzalez and his violent criminal enterprise bureau for being exactly the kind of partner that we need to keep driving gun violence down.
Finally, the people of East New York, we know what you’ve been dealing with. Through each takedown, we are making your streets safer. And I promise you we are not letting up, not under this administration because Mayor Adams has made it clear that public safety is his number one priority. When the critics called to cut funding, Mayor Adams chose to cut crime. When the pressure came to back down, Mayor Adams chose to double down. And when others tried to make headlines, Mayor Adams was on the front lines. Thank you all so much.
District Attorney Gonzalez: Alright, a few things. I’m going to take a couple of questions. If you can just show a couple of clips. I said that these young men were gun obsessed. We see some of the guns on the table. These are young men playing with assault weapons. This is on their social media. Fueling the violence and the fear. It’s a gun with an extended clip. And this is just some of the examples on the social media.
As we enter the 4th of July, I want to encourage all New Yorkers to be very safe with the fireworks. And again, I want to thank everyone for coming today. We’re going to take a couple of questions. I did want to point out that the murder weapon in this particular case was, in fact, recovered during a subsequent search warrant from another member of R2R’s home. This is the firearm that killed Mr. Ba. Again, very smart detective work led us to a tip where we could recover this gun during a search warrant of another R2R member.
So the work continues. This is a very strong case. You obviously saw the video evidence. The murder weapon has, in fact, been recovered. And we’re committed to giving justice to Mr. Ba’s family. As the mayor and the police commissioner said to all the residents of Brownsville in East New York, we are going to continue to reduce the shooting violence in our communities.
So, yes, there were questions. Lauren, I’ll let you deal with the questions.
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: All of them. They range from 15 to 20 years old.
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: So the Raise the Age law, as the mayor said, was done with the best of intentions, trying to treat young teenagers as children, understanding that there’s a lot of impulsivity and a lack of control, and wanting not to create lifelong barriers in their future.
It does not necessarily make sense to any New Yorker that I speak to that that should also protect them from accountability on gun violence. And so that’s an area where we have to continue to go back. The DAs have spoken that, we want the legislature to take a look at Raising the Age, very specifically as it relates to gun violence.
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: Well, they’re going to see there are tremendous consequences to these young men. Many of them have already been arraigned. They’re continuing to be arraigned. The commissioner said two are on the run. We’re confident we’re going to apprehend them. So far, the judges have set high-level bail, and on the homicide have remanded defendants. They are going to see that there are consequences to this.
We’re going to offer them services. Project Restore is about trying to get to young gang members that have not pulled the trigger yet, who have not crossed the line yet, who are not indicted, to offer them a way out of the gang and to let them lead productive lives. And we’re going to offer those services. We’ve reached out to community leaders and violence interrupters. We’ll start to have the conversations with the young men from R2R and rival gangs.
But the retaliation has already been happening, right? This is why there are at least 30 shootings that we think are in this two-year span that we looked at in the East New York area. We think most of them are related to gang violence. There are very few, thank God, but very few shootings related to robberies or those burglaries like we might have seen in the 80s or 90s.
So much of the violence that’s gang-driven is simply about the retaliation and the fueling of social media. And I wish that social media would have filters that would not allow those kinds of videos to be played. Yes?
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: I mean, we continue to focus on illegal gun possession. As the commissioner told you, 2,600 guns so far have been taken off the streets. Just in two gun buybacks, my office did in one church in Brooklyn over the past year, just 400 guns were voluntarily turned in. We know those guns are no longer available to commit crimes or to use as suicides. All of these things to get guns off the streets are important.
We work with the city, NYPD, but also federal partners on trafficking cases, and we have ongoing trafficking investigations right now throughout the borough, where people are getting guns primarily from down south and selling them illegally, and we’re arresting those people. And typically, they look at double-digit sentences when they’re convicted for selling guns illegally on the streets of Brooklyn.
That’s all part of that strategy, but as we’ve said over and over again, we need help from our federal partners in helping to restrict the flow of these guns into New York City. Yes?
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: Well, I’m talking very specifically about the use of enhanced technology to solve these cases. What has happened, there’s a code of conduct, a street code that says if you’re involved in the life, if you’re a fellow gang member and you’re shot at or you’re shot, that you can’t come forward and testify. And that code of conduct has meant that, historically, a lot of these cases have not gotten resolved.
But over the last several years working with the Gun Violence Suppression Division, what we’ve done at Brooklyn is something extraordinary. We’ve gone back and solved cases with no victim involvement in the case. The victims are not involved in the case. We prove the cases through medical records. We prove the crime through the use of technology.
And again, I’ve already said this, that typically people who commit murders don’t want to be identified. That is not true in the context of gang violence. They want to get credit for it. They literally have things online that say we’re up two shootings over our rivals. They want to take credit for it. I mean, in the videos that you’ve seen, you saw that they basically said, your homie died, we did that. Basically, what are you going to do about it?
So we’re going to solve these cases. A lot of the technology that we’re talking about comes from getting information off metadata or from phones, from technology, from the cloud. So it’s getting things through legal means, working with judges, getting search warrants, but tracking cases and solving them in ways that we could not solve before because we had no eyewitnesses that would come forward. Yes?
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: No. So they’re not eligible for the program. I want to be very clear that the program that the mayor has supported over the last several years and the City Council has supported is a program to get people away from gang violence. It’s not eligible. It’s not an alternative to the incarceration program. These men will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
This is a program for young people who are not facing criminal charges and saying there’s a way to get out of the gang. Our last participant group that graduated recently, there were 30 young men involved in that program. About somewhere between six and eight of them are in college now. They’re holding jobs. They’ve moved out of the neighborhood. They’ve gotten city resources. The mayor has been very generous with the use of services. We had to relocate someone because he had been shot at several times and we were able to relocate him.
This is really a program to move people out of gang life. Unlike some of the other initiatives in the past, which was always like carrots and sticks, which is, if you don’t participate, we’re going to come and arrest you. That doesn’t exist because they’re not facing charges. This is a voluntary program. It’s been very successful so far. And as the mayor said, it really should be a model for the rest of the city.
This is dealing with some of the most dangerous young men identified by our community members and by NYPD as most likely to be either victims or perpetrators of gun violence. And I want to be really clear because it’s really less than half of 1 percent of our community who would ever pick up a gun and use it unlawfully. So we know who they are.
The offer of services is critical because a lot of these men are completely detached from the society as we understand it. They don’t have jobs. They don’t have identification. They don’t have bank accounts. They’re really living separate and apart from our life. And so we have to bring them back into the fold and provide the services that they need to be law-abiding and to be safe because the other part of this is, and I’ve mentioned this, this is an important piece. As they don’t commit those shootings in the future and they’re not victimized as victims in the future, we get a peace dividend. We get the dividend of peace. There’s no retaliation for their cases. Yes?
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: Yes.
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: Project Restore, if you’re talking—
[Crosstalk.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: No, Project Restore is a program to move people out of the violence. In terms of future takedowns, we’re working on multiple cases right now in other parts of Brooklyn to make sure that they can enjoy it.
You know, what we see typically is after a takedown in any particular area, if it’s in Bushwick, Bed Stuy, Coney Island, right after the takedown, shooting violence drops typically between 30 and 40 percent. So that immediately, because we’ve identified the right people, we’re pulling the trigger. Yes?
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: Yes.
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: Five? Five. Yeah, I think it’s five. And to the explanation of the question is I can’t and the police commissioner can’t allow someone, once we build probable cause to effectuate an arrest, to stay out on the street, especially on these shootings.
So there are times that we will pick up a shooter and charge him with the immediate shooting, but it doesn’t have all of the other parts of the conspiracy, you know, all of the other gun possessions and everything. So we supersede the indictment as a takedown. We’re adding all of the additional evidence and additional charges.
But in terms of public safety, we do not, and I want to be clear to New Yorkers, we do not leave shooters on the street waiting for a big takedown. As soon as we can build a sufficient case to get before a judge and get bail set, we’re going to do that. And so that’s what we did. We took these young men off the streets piece by piece. And then today, the remainder offenders were put in custody actually yesterday and facing the arraignments today. So far, bail has been set.
Question: [Inaudible.]
District Attorney Gonzalez: They’re on the run. They know that we’re looking for them. They’re on the run. One had communicated through a parent that they would surrender. I don’t know if it’s happened yet. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, police commissioner and mayor. Thank you.
July 3, 2025 New York City Hall
Sources: nyc.gov , Big New York news
Midtown Tribune news
