Major street gang that recruited and targeted teenagers brought down, DA says

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz and NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny announced the takedown of the Bad-Co Ballout street gang. Eagle photo by Noah Powelson

By Noah Powelson

Thirty-two members of an alleged street gang were arrested this week for over a dozen shootings across Queens that took the lives of rival gang members and innocent bystanders alike – and nearly a third of the defendants are underaged.

The Queens district attorney’s office on Thursday announced a yearlong investigation had resulted in the takedown of the Bad-Co Ballout, a street gang the DA’s office said has been waging war against their rivals across Queens. The defendants are variously charged in a 97-count indictment with murder, attempted murder, weapon possession, conspiracy and other crimes.

In total, the DA’s office pressed charges against 23 adult and nine teenage defendants. Six of the defendants were previously in custody on other matters, while the remaining were brought in on Wednesday.

The DA’s office claims the arrests make for the second-largest gang take down in the borough’s history.

The defendants, as alleged, are members or associates of the Bad-Co gang and are affiliated with either the 55 Neighborhood Crips or the Self-Made Mak Ballas gangs.

According to the Queens DA’s office, Bad-Co is allegedly responsible for at least three murders, two non-fatal shootings and eight shooting incidents with no injuries that occurred between 2022 and 2024. The intended victims of their attacks were allegedly other rival gang members, but bystanders were regularly hurt or killed in the crossfire.

Prosecutors say they accumulated a mountain of evidence connecting the defendants to shootings and murders in Queens Village, Jamaica, Fresh Meadows, Kew Garden Hills, St. Albans and Cambria Heights.

Seventeen firearms were also seized during the investigation.

Thirteen of the 32 defendants are the actual alleged shooters, while the other members are charged with assisting or carrying out other crimes to facilitate the gang’s activities. All defendants were charged with conspiracy in the first or second degree.

Three defendants remain at large.

“As alleged, the members of Bad-Co have operated as a ruthless gang in Queens for the past four years and are now considered the most violent in the borough,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. “They terrorized rivals, and harmed innocent bystanders, to maintain and expand their geographic dominance. Tragically, three people were murdered due to this gang’s indiscriminate violence. We will not relent in our work to dismantle gangs in this borough.

On Wednesday afternoon in Queens Criminal courthouse, the defendants – some of whom were as young as 15 – were shuffled into the pews of the courtrooms with chains around their hands and legs to meet their attorneys for the first time. The sheer number of defendants required dozens of police officers and two different Queens Supreme Court justices to process as many defendants as they could.

The makeup of the defendants is overall quite young, with the oldest defendant being 24 years old and the youngest being 15. Several of the adult defendants were minors when some of the crimes they are charged with took place.

Prosecutors said Jahvon Attapoku, 21, was the mastermind behind the shootings; planning the gang’s activity inside his Queens Village home. Attapoku, also known as “Shady,” allegedly was the one distributing guns and giving permission to shoot other perceived rivals, as was the case with 18-year-old Mark Greene.

According to the DA’s office, on Nov 10, 2022, Attapoku led other gang members to rob Greene outside the victim’s high school in Kew Garden Hills. At approximately 3 p.m. that day, Attapoku approached Greene alongside alleged fellow gang member Jeff Joseph, 21. Joseph, who also went by the name “Havoc,” allegedly shot Greene multiple times, killing him, then stole his firearm.

But the alleged victims were not just gang rivals. Prosecutors said that on multiple occasions, civilians unaffiliated with gang activity were harmed or killed by the defendants’ actions.

During one incident on June 7, 2022, defendants Mekhi Hooi, 21, and Elijah Lawrence, 21, allegedly fired 23 rounds near a St. Albans home attempting to murder a rival. The rival was not hit, but a 15-year-old girl sitting in her living room was struck in the leg. She eventually recovered.

In another shooting on Sept. 16, 2024, an unnamed 15-year-old defendant allegedly fired multiple shots at a rival gang member across a St. Albans intersection. William Alcindor, a 66-year-old motorist, was caught in the crossfire as he drove on Baisley Boulevard. He lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a 23-year-old woman who was sitting on a nearby curb.

Alcindor was later pronounced dead due to three gunshot wounds, one in his head and two in his chest. The woman survived but reportedly suffered major head trauma and a collapsed lung.

“This is the very definition of senseless violence that produces innocent victims as well,” Katz said during a press conference on Thursday.

During the arraignments, prosecutors handed over a flash drive that contained 8.51 gigabytes of data including photos, social media posts and video surveillance of multiple shooting incidents.

Among the files on the thumb drive was a music video they say Attapoku filmed alongside his alleged gang members, during which he took credit for planning and killing of several victims, including Greene.

Prosecutor Charles Dunn said these attacks were meant to establish power and control over large swaths of Central and Southern Queens. The music videos, Dunn said during arraignment, was how Attapoku laid claim to the violence and boosted his own street cred.

“It was him that was driving the shootings, and it was him taking credit for all of it,” Dunn said.

Dunn also said that the thumb drive was only the “tip of the discovery iceberg” on Wednesday, and estimated it represented only a tenth of the discovery the prosecution plans to bring forward documenting over 20 separate incidents and dates.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said that several of the defendants already had a history with the law, including for illegal firearm possession and shootings.

“Several of these defendants are shooting recidivists, who have repeatedly shown they are willing to pull the trigger no matter what the costs,” Kenny said. “As seen in these indictments, most of their victims were teenagers or young adults. These defendants knew exactly what they were doing and they often bragged about their crimes, showing no regard for human life.”

Attapoku, along with other higher ranking gang members, allegedly recruited teenagers and minors as young as 15 to their gang.

During the arraignments, prosecutors said the underage defendants were allegedly used to scout out possible planned shooting sites and even carry out the killings themselves. Younger members of the gang were also expected to “pay up” to the higher-ranking members, Dunn said during arraignments, and often had to pay Attapoku for lost or damaged firearms.

“The older members of the gang would recruit these younger members and then impress upon them to carry out acts of violence for the gang so they can gain status and notoriety,” Dunn said on Thursday. “To do so would be to commit shootings and to get firearms and acquire money in any way possible in order to gain status in the gang.”

Defendants were arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Justices Bruna DiBiase and Kenneth Holder. Holder only assisted in arraigning the adult defendants and will not preside over the future proceedings.

All the defendants were transferred to DiBiase, who leads the Youth Part of Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term.

Attapoku is due back in court Nov. 25.