Mayor Eric Adams continues to push that he's going to be tough on crime.


What You Need To Know

  • Indicted gang members are just teenagers

  • Prosecutors allege gang tried to recruit 11- and 12-year-olds into gang life

  • Mayor Adams made surprise appearance at gang takedown news conference

  • Law enforcement officials say arrests will reduce violence in several Brooklyn neighborhoods

On Tuesday, he appeared at a news conference in Brooklyn about a gang takedown. 

"Those who are carrying the guns, we are not using an excuse for violence," Adams said. "We are going to partner together and take down violent people out of our city."

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the indictment of 17 alleged gang members accused of being involved in shooting 14 people in the borough, killing four of them. 

Investigators allege some gang members opened fire at a Sweet 16 birthday party on Albany Avenue in November of 2020. Seven people were injured, and a 20-year-old woman visiting from Virginia was killed. 

"You see everyone running for their lives. You can see Iquan Warlick shooting," Gonzalez said, referring to one of the suspects. "You can see the guy running away with the gun. They have already shot a number of people. "

Gonzalez showed several disturbing videos of the gun violence allegedly committed by teens, some only 15 and 16 years old. He said three Brooklyn gangs in areas around Brownsville, East New York, Fort Greene and Bedford-Stuyvesant came together to form a larger gang. They were mostly based in public housing developments.

In one case, an innocent 18-year-old college student was killed at a bodega. 

In another video, gunfire erupts during a dispute in MetroTech in the middle of the afternoon. It happened in September of last year, injuring an NYU student. The following month, just hours after NY1 interviewed then-candidate Adams in MetroTech, there was another shooting in the middle of the afternoon in the area.  

"These were guns in the hands of bad people who did bad things to good people," Adams said at the news conference.

The new members of the NYPD executive team were at the news conference as well. 

Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said the NYPD's top job is to stop violence. She added even for young people who have limited options, gang violence will not be tolerated.  

Law enforcement officials said many of the gang members make rap videos about their violence and promote their violence on social media.

Adams and Sewell said they also want to get services to those who are poor and undereducated before they turn to violence. 

"We will curtail gun violence, but simultaneously expand our work to reach out and collaborate with communities we serve to provide more choices to young people who have too few," Sewell said.

The district attorney said five of those indicted face up to life in prison if convicted. The others face up to 20 years behind bars.