Twelve alleged members of the “Gates Avenue Mafia” and 20 others have been indicted with conspiring to sell firearms, heroin, and cocaine following a year-long investigation that involved officers working undercover, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson announced on Thursday.
The activities of the gang caught the attention of the community in Bedford-Stuyvesant after an 11-year-old girl, Taylonni Mazyck, was caught in the crossfire between the Gates Mafia and a rival gang in May of 2013. Mazyck caught a bullet through a chin that hit her spine, and she is now paralyzed from the waist down.
“There is absolutely no reason why an innocent 11-year-old girl should be caught in a hail of bullets while sitting outside with her family on a spring evening and is now paralyzed,” Thompson said in a statement. “We must reclaim streets such as Gates Avenue that are too often plagued by gang violence and blatant drug dealing, and these arrests will help us do so.”
Mazyck was hit by one of the 10 bullets fired by Kane Cooper, an alleged member of the Young Bosses gang, that were aimed at members of the Gates Avenue Mafia hanging out halfway down the block where Mazyck lived.
Cooper has since been charged with attempted murder.
