FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Three Alleged Gang Members Indicted for Attempted Murder of Five
Victims, Including Pregnant Woman, Who Were Shot in Red Hook
Allegedly Wounded Three Women and Two Men as Retribution for Earlier Shooting
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that three Brooklyn men were indicted for a shooting that wounded five people in Red Hook, Brooklyn earlier this month. The gunfire, which caused a pregnant 19-year-old victim to miscarry, was allegedly part of an ongoing dispute between rival gangs and came as retribution for a shooting earlier that day.
District Attorney Thompson said, “In light of the horrific shooting in Red Hook that caused a young woman to lose her baby, we’re determined to put these defendants away for as long as possible.”
The District Attorney identified the defendants as Marquise Frederick, Quamari McAllister and Elijah Wells, all 19, from Brooklyn. They are named in a 20-count indictment that includes five counts of second-degree attempted murder, three counts of first-degree assault, five counts of first-degree attempted assault and related charges.
Wells was arrested today and arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog. He was ordered held without bail and is due back in court on October 27, 2015. Frederick and McAllister were arrested on August 5, 2015 and have been ordered held without bail. They will be arraigned on the indictment at a later date. Each defendant faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top counts.
The District Attorney said that, according to the indictment, on August 3, 2015, at about 10:48 p.m., the defendants pulled up in a green Ford Explorer outside 9A Dwight Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn. They allegedly stepped out of the car and repeatedly shot in the direction of the victims, striking all five. They then jumped back into the vehicle and fled. Surveillance video captured the Explorer, which is registered to McAllister’s father, leaving the area at a high rate of speed. Numerous .40-caliber shell casings were recovered from the scene.
The victims, who suffered gunshot wounds to the body, included two 20-year-old men and three women ages 19, 19 and 22. One of the women was pregnant and had a miscarriage as a result of her injuries.
The investigation revealed that the defendants are allegedly members of the “Gownaus Crew” or “Oww-Oww,” a subset of the Bloods gang. The group has been involved in a simmering dispute with a rival crew based in Red Hook, which was rooted in a homicide from March 2015. Earlier on August 3, another “Oww-Oww” member was shot and it is alleged that the later shooting that night was meant as retaliation.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Iris Das of the District Attorney’s Violent Criminal Enterprises Bureau, and Nicole Chavis, Bureau Chief, under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney William E. Schaeffer, Chief of the District Attorney’s Investigations Division.
An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.
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