Overview
- On Thursday prosecutors unsealed a 176-count indictment charging 22 people they say belong to Renegade Goons and related Folk Nation subsets; the defendants were arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court and are either remanded or held on high bail.
- Prosecutors allege the group carried out 26 shootings from 2022 through 2026 that injured 23 people and killed one, a wave they say began after October 2022 slayings that sparked a so-called "tour of revenge."
- Officials displayed surveillance video and said investigators seized dozens of firearms, including at least one ghost gun, which Gov. Kathy Hochul cited as evidence of rising use of untraceable, 3D-printable weapons.
- Nine of those charged are teenagers, including two 17-year-olds accused of opening fire at a Sweet 16 in December that wounded six teens, a development that has renewed calls from the DA to reassess Raise the Age policies.
- Brooklyn leaders described the indictment as the third recent takedown in an intensified anti-gun campaign tied to year-to-date drops in shootings in parts of the borough, while defense groups and advocates have raised civil-justice concerns about tools such as the NYPD gang database.