EAST NEW YORK, BROOKLYN — An East New York gang who financed shooting sprees with bank fraud and drug deals were caught this week, according to federal officials.
Six members of the “Bamalife” gang were charged Tuesday for years of fraud, drug dealing and violent crimes, including six shootings in the borough that left at least a dozen people wounded, prosecutors said.
The gang’s hunt for rivals included open firing at a 6-year-old’s birthday party in Bushwick and a mass shooting in Bed-Stuy where eight people were hurt, according to documents.
“The defendants wreaked havoc in East New York and nearby neighborhoods, with innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire as members of Bamalife carried out senseless violence directed against rival gangs,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a press release.
The most recent shootings include an August 2021 incident when Bamalife member Andrew “Drewski” Simpson and at least two accomplices opened fire into a crowd outside the Eleanor Roosevelt Houses in Bed-Stuy, hitting eight people, prosectors said.
Earlier in 2021, another member — Tyshawn “GT” Sumpter — waited outside a 6-year-old’s birthday party after some party-goers had an altercation with Bamalife members, prosecutors said. He then open fired while chasing the party guests, including young children, down the street, prosecutors said.
Behind the trigger in four earlier shootings on Tuesday’s indictment was another gang member, Darrius “Blizz Meecho” Sutton, who had already been in custody for at least one of the shootings before this week’s bust, prosectors said.
Back in 2019, Sutton opened fire on a thought-to-be rival gang member outside a party in East New York, hitting the victim and an innocent bystander, prosecutors said.
Months later, he shot a man three times on Sheffield Avenue — a shooting another Bamalife member would later brag about on Instagram when Sutton was arrested, writing “MY BOY GREAT” with photos from court records, prosecutors said.
Also in 2020, Sutton shot a rival in the courtyard of a Pitkin Avenue building while other Bamalife members charged Tuesday waited in the car and he and Sumpter opened fire on Vermont Avenue, prosecutors said.
The Bamalife members were also charged with several murder plots they planned against rival gang members, including one where a gang member released a rap video bragging about how a rival and his girlfriend are “going to die together,” prosecutors said.
To finance the shooting sprees, gang members raked in tens of thousands of dollars by stealing from other peoples’ bank accounts with fake checks or filing fraudulent unemployment applications in different states, according to court records.
Here are the six people charged Tuesday:
DARRIUS SUTTON (also known as “Blizz Meecho”)
Age: 24
Brooklyn, New York
TRAVA SELBY (also known as “Stoney”)
Age: 27
Brooklyn, New York
ANDREW SIMPSON (also known as “Drewski”)
Age: 24
Brooklyn, New York
TYSHAWN SUMPTER (also known as “GT”)
Age: 28
Brooklyn, New York
RONNIE WARREN (also known as “Bossman Horse”)
Age: 25
Hoboken, New Jersey
COREY WILLIAMS (also known as “Moncler Mellz”)
Age: 27
Rembert, South Carolina
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