Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Stickup Crew Arrested for Shooting Ex-Knicks Player at Strip Club

 Knicks forward Cleanthony Early was shot after exiting the City Scapes Gentlemen's Club in Queens, police said.
Knicks forward Cleanthony Early was shot after exiting the City Scapes Gentlemen's Club in Queens, police said.
View Full Caption
Facebook/CleanthonyEarly and DNAinfo/William Mathis

BROOKLYN FEDERAL COURT — Three men who were part of the stickup crew who shot ex-Knicks forward Cleanthony Early in the knee during a robbery outside a Queens strip club were arrested by federal agents Tuesday, federal prosecutors said.

Johan "Yodi" Antney, Dashawn "Pop" Tejada and Shaqueel "Bear" Walker were charged with conspiring to hold up Early, a Bronx native, after getting tipped off that he was in City Scapes Gentlemen's Club in Maspeth on Dec. 30, 2015, according to the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's office.

The men confronted the ballplayer and his girlfriend as the two stepped out of the strip club and into an Uber car, according to a detention memo filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael T. Keilty.

The three men, driving three separate cars with three other men, surrounded the Early's car with their vehicles, forcing it to stop in the middle of the road.

Donning ski masks the six men ordered Early, who had just come off a 108-to-96 victory against Detroit, and his girlfriend out of the car and demanded their jewels and cellphones.

"Gimme everything you got," one of the suspects said, according to sources.

"Everything" included Early's gold grill and chains, sources said.

Tejada became trigger-happy and fired three shots, hitting the forward once in the knee, according to the feds.

The three men were part of a regular stickup crew that targeted a Queens barbershop that same night, robbing a victim at gunpoint, Keilty said in his filing.

Walker and Tejada targeted another CityScapes customer earlier in Dec. 2015, the prosecutor said.

Two of the three men have extensive criminal histories. Antney, was on parole for attempted burglary at the time of the stickup. Tejada is currently on trial in Brooklyn State Supreme Criminal Court for an April 6, 2017 charge of carrying a loaded gun. He was also charged with shooting a German tourist in 2011. He was arrested twice in 2016 for bail jumping and illegal weapons possession.

Walker was never convicted of a crime, but has an outstanding bench warrant for jumping bail on a burglary charge.

NYPD investigators found one of the crew members after ShotSpotter led police to a Bed-Stuy roof where they recovered a shell casing, which they then connected to the member who lived in the building, NYPD Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce said during an unrelated press conference Tuesday.  

Investigators also had two other cooperating witnesses who arrested for other crimes, Boyce added. 

The feds are still looking for two other unidentified men who are also believed to be part of the robbery crew that hit Early.

Another man, Delvon "Bam Bam" Dowling, pleaded guilty in April 2017 to fencing jewelry stolen in the robbery on the basketball player.

Tejada, Walker and Antney were arrested Tuesday by detectives with an NYPD/Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives task force.