PARK SLOPE — A Latin Kings gang assault on a rival group in which four young men were stabbed happened around the corner from Mayor Bill de Blasio's doorstep, prosecutors announced this week.
The 2013 attack was part of a conspiracy hatched by the street gang against a warring faction they considered "disrespectful," according to two indictments naming 18 men.
The murder plot kicked off on Sept. 27, 2013, around the corner from then-mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio's Park Slope home on 11th Street and Sixth Avenue, according to prosecutors.
Four victims were stabbed in the vicious attack against members of the Park Slope Latin Kings group known as the "Hardbody tribe." The assault was carried out by Latin Kings members of the "Outlaws tribe," based in Bushwick and East New York, prosecutors said.
The most seriously injured victim, who was 16, was stabbed in the back and the chest and was "nearly scalped," according to prosecutors. Witnesses told DNAinfo he collapsed in front of the Sixth Avenue restaurant Mariella as it was closing up for the night.
"It was like someone had dumped a bucket of blood on his head," the witness said. "It was really gruesome. I didn't think he would make it."
Witnesses also said young men involved in the assault raced down 11th Street minutes before the stabbings and knocked over furniture in the outdoor seating area at Bar Toto, a favorite hangout of the de Blasios.
All four victims survived the Sept. 27, 2013 attack, and the defendants indicted Thursday continued their campaign of violence, according to prosecutors. The gang members were behind an Oct. 20, 2013 stabbing in Jamaica, Queens, and a March 25, 2014 stabbing and shooting in Bushwick that put the victim in a coma, prosecutors said.
The defendants were charged Thursday with "conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit assault, gang assault, assault, weapons charges, intimidating a witness, tampering with a witness and other charges in connection with attacks," according to the DA. They each face up to 25 years in prison.
“We must protect the community from these senseless acts of bloodshed — which were committed supposedly to enforce the Latin Kings manifesto," said District Attorney Kenneth Thompson in a statement. "The streets of Brooklyn do not belong to the Latin Kings but to the people of Brooklyn, and our streets are now safer as a result of these arrests.”
