Police Take Down Street Gang

By COLlive staff

14 members of a Crown Heights street gang known as the “Brower Boys” were indicted on 102-counts for committing burglaries, assaults and robberies in the vicinity of Brower Park.

“These Brower Bums terrorized their neighborhood for one long year, but now their cycle of crime is over,” said Kings County District Attorney Charles Hynes who made the announcement Wednesday with New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

Commissioner Kelly said, “Although some were as young as 13, the Brower Boys were old hands at burglaries and worse – victimizing neighbors, but making the mistake of fighting over the proceeds on Facebook, which led keen NYPD Anti-Crime officers in the 77th Precinct to monitor and arrest them.

“I commend Police Officer Michael Rodriquez, the anti-crime officer who was integral to the DA’s investigation; the 77th and 79th Precinct detective squads and Brooklyn Special Victims squad for their role in stopping this group.”

The defendants are charged with climbing fire escapes and traversing rooftops, to access apartments, in a year-long burglary spree, from April 2011 to March 2012. The defendants range from 15 to 19 years old, including two juvenile offenders. They stole mainly electronic equipment, like cell phones, laptops, cameras and video games, which they would later pawn, according to the indictment.

Most of the break-ins occurred when residents were not home, but in one incident, four defendants, Derrin Dyson, 18; Dezhaun Samuels, 18; Christopher Scott, 17; and a 13-year-old juvenile, tied up the male and female residents of an apartment, threatened to kill them if they called the police, robbed the apartment, and physically assaulted the female resident, according to the indictment.

On another occasion, defendant Terry Walley, 18, shot a resident of a home the defendant was burglarizing and suffered his own gunshot wound in a struggle with the victim, according to the indictment.

Dyson, Samuels and defendant Andre Valentino, 18, are also charged with burglarizing an apartment on Xmas Day 2011, climbing to the roof of Samuel’s building, 921 St. Marks Ave., and traversing neighboring rooftops, before climbing down the victim’s fire escape and entering through a window.

Members of the NYPD Burglary, Larceny And Surveillance Team (BLAST) made video recordings of several defendants entering and leaving apartment windows, climbing up and down fire escape ladders and stairs, and running across rooftops.

An indictment is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s guilt.

The case is being prosecuted by Michael Perkins, First Deputy Bureau Chief in the Gang Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Artese in the Gangs Bureau. Deanna M. Rodriguez is Chief of the Gangs Bureau.