Five alleged Brooklyn biker gang members charged in East Flatbush shootout
Five members of an alleged Brooklyn biker gang face charges of attempted murder and assault following a frenzied East Flatbush gun battle last spring, the Brooklyn District Attorney said Thursday.
The bikers turned a residential street “into chaos,” Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement, “sending bystanders running for their lives.”
Members of the Brooklyn-based “Street Knights” biker gang were holding an anniversary party at an event hall between Utica and Foster avenues in April when a large group of motorcycles from the rival “Hood Ryderz” motorcycle club drove by, according to the release from the DA’s office.
Two Street Knights members started firing in their direction, hitting a 35-year-old Hood Ryderz biker in the leg, prosecutors said. Multiple vehicles were damaged in the crossfire, with one round narrowly missing a female passenger, they said.
One of the defendants and two members of the rival gang were treated at nearby hospitals for gunshot wounds.
Prosecutors said Akeem McDonald, 37, of Huntington Station, Saanshuray Bobbitt, 43, of Jamaica, Queens, Raheem Watson, 41, of Cypress Hills, and Melsoñe Gasby, 47, of Deer Park were arraigned on a 52-count indictment in Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday.
Ricardo Johnson, 51, of Sicklerville, New Jersey, will be arraigned pending extradition from his home state.
The charges include attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm, attempted assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
Three of the men were ordered held without bail and Gasby’s bail was set at $200,000 cash.
Defense attorneys for McDonald and Watson said they had no comment on the charges.
Attorneys for Bobbitt and Gasby did not respond to requests for comment.
The defendants are set to return to court Dec. 17.
Overall gun violence in the city is down this year, according to a
