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Gang Member Shot Off Rival's Manhood in Brooklyn Street Feud, Source Says

By Gwynne Hogan | August 22, 2017 6:37pm

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A gang member's member was the casualty of a prolonged street feud between rival crews that left one person dead and 13 people injured, a law enforcement source said Tuesday. 

Reputed gang member Tysheen Gott lost his penis during a shooting in a Woodhaven fast-food joint in November 2015 as part of a beef between gangs that was the focus of a sweeping gang indictment, officials and law enforcement sources said.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's office charged nine members of the Loot Gang, which operated out of the Ocean Hill Houses in Cypress Hills, in a 69-count indictment for murder, attempted murder, gang assault, gun possession, conspiracy and other crimes.

Gott, who was not charged and did not cooperate with investigators, was confronted by Loot Gang member Dylan Cruz, 25, who shot him five times in November 2015 inside Rico Chimi Restaurant in Woodhaven, Queens, authorities said.

In video of the shooting, Gott can be seen pulling a woman who was an innocent bystander in front of him to shield himself from the bullets. The woman was struck three times, prosecutors said.

Most tragically of all, an innocent college student lost his life just because he had the wrong color shorts on, prosecutors said.

Terrell Henry, 22, a John Jay student who wanted to be a police officer, was in Bushwick for a rooftop party on Aug. 12, 2016, and had just bought an iced tea at a bodega when gunman Quincy Vital mistook him for a rival gang member because of the color of his shorts, acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said.

"Quincy Vital executed Terrell Henry for the simple offense of being in rival gang territory while simply wearing red shorts," Gonzalez said, calling Quincy, a "driver of crime." "This is a heartbreaking homicide."

Prosecutors said that Vital, 19, had been cruising enemy turf, a practice known as "spinning the block," in in his mother's Mazda prior to the shooting.

Gonzalez detailed the investigation into the gang rivalry that resulted in seven shootings between November of 2015 and August of 2016 in Downtown Brooklyn, Bushwick, Bed-Stuy and Woodhaven, wounding 14 people.

Other innocent victims were wounded in a bloody tit-for-tat that took place on July 4, 2016, where prosecutors counted four separate shootings between members of the Loot Gang and True Bosses Crew.

Defendant Maurice Ellis, 20, fired into a crowd gathered at an outdoor party on Chauncey Street in Bed-Stuy, striking seven people, prosecutors said.

Police and prosecutors combed through video surveillance, Facebook posts and messages, YouTube videos and SoundCloud recordings, piecing together cryptic references to the shootings and deaths at the hands members of the Loot Gang, which has loose ties to the Bloods.

Crew members often took to social media to brag about the shootings or taunt rival gangs, which would incur further retaliation and violence, Gonzalez said.

One bragged on Facebook that a fellow crew member had "Swiss Cheesed That S--t,” following the Queens shooting where Gott lost his penis.

In a SoundCloud recording, accused gunman Cruz references the same shooting, saying, "at the chicken spot, no ducking shots, you’ll get shot.”

Much of the gun violence is thought to be in retaliation for the 2015 shooting death of 16-year-old Armani Hankins, prosecutors said.

They pointed to a YouTube video released by accused crew member Legrant Foster called "Rocky World," in which some of the accused gang members appear talking about violence in retaliation for Hankins, who was nicknamed Rocky.

"I'm gonna do it for Rock, and I ain't gonna stop," the song goes. "The bullets gonna fly."

“Too often we’re stunned by senseless violence in our communities. We see shootings like this and it's agonizing to us. The motives behind the shooting are so pointless it baffles us,” Gonzalez said.

“We continue to see people shooting people based on beefs that exist on social media,” he added.

The indictment announced Tuesday piggybacks of a June takedown of 12 accused members of the Bushwick-based rival gang True Bosses Only crew, which has its turf in Bushwick and was often targets for Loot Gang shooters, prosecutors said.

The eight men and one unnamed 15-year-old face various charges ranging from conspiracy, assault, attempted assault, gang assault and attempted murder, according to the indictment.

Terrard Wimms, 19, of East New York, Josiah Morris, 19, of Brownsville, and Ellis, also of Brownsville, were arraigned and remanded Monday, prosecutors said.

Wimms and Morrisboth face attempted murder, conspiracy and attempted assault charges. Wimms's attorney could not immediately be reached for comment, and no information about Morris's attorney was available. Ellis faces attempted murder, conspiracy and gang assault charges, among others. His attorney didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Cruz, Vital, Foster and suspect David Burston were awaiting arraignment as of Tuesday afternoon. No information about their attorneys was available. Another suspect, Earl Gilbert, is still at large, prosecutors said.