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Teen Gang Members Arrested for Pistol-Whip Robbery at Douglass Houses

By Emily Frost | June 30, 2015 2:48pm
 Three men beat another man and stole his cellphone inside the lobby of 840 Columbus Avenue, a building within Frederick Douglass Houses, police said.
Three men beat another man and stole his cellphone inside the lobby of 840 Columbus Avenue, a building within Frederick Douglass Houses, police said.
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Facebook/Sharif Jackson

UPPER WEST SIDE — A teen who was shot multiple times by rival gang members in March was arrested last week along with two others for pistol-whipping and robbing another teen inside the Frederick Douglass Houses, police said. 

Zaquan Smith, 18, Mark Brock, 17, and Michael Floyd, 17, all gang members, hit another another 17-year-old in the back of the head with a gun before forcing him to hand over his cellphone inside the lobby of 840 Columbus Ave. at about 8 p.m. Friday, police said. 

The three attackers punched and kicked the victim in the face and body, leaving him bloodied and bruised, according to the criminal complaint.

The trio ran off, but police gave chase and arrested them, said 24th Precinct Capt. Marlon Larin.

Smith had an illegal .380-caliber gun on him and was charged with first-degree robbery and criminal weapons possession, according to Larin and the complaint.

He is currently being held on $50,000 bail, authorities said.

The other two teens were also charged with first-degree robbery and criminal weapons possession, authorities said. Floyd is being held on $20,000 bail, and Brock is being held on $15,000 bail.

Floyd and Brock's lawyers declined to comment, and information about Smith's lawyer was not available.

On March 22, Smith was shot three times by a group of rival Harlem gang members on Columbus Avenue at West 104th Street in what police believe was retribution for a boastful social media post. 

The shooters fired 12 shots in all, Larin noted. 

The arrests on Friday were "very timely and very necessary," he said. 

"Any time we can take a gun off the street, that’s a shooting averted," Larin added.

The three teens arrested do not have home addresses at Douglass Houses, he said. Smith's most recent address is in Washington Heights, while Floyd and Brock are from The Bronx.

Gang members are always in the Douglass Houses area and "gravitate toward it," Larin said. 

The 24th Precinct, which runs from West 86th Street to West 110th Street, has seen a rise in shootings so far in 2015 compared to the same period last year.

The shootings have occurred in a concentrated area in the northeast part of the precinct, where police officers who are not on assignment are sent most regularly, Larin said.

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