While Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is grandstanding at the Philadelphia airport, leveling silly threats at federal ICE agents who are aiding travelers process security procedures in the absence of TSA security personnel who are unpaid by Congress, it appears that some of his subordinates at the DA office are on the job.
A case in point is the March 19th announcement that the DA’s office brought charges against 21 defendants, all members of local street gangs in Philadelphia. The 21 defendants were indicted for their role in more than a dozen shootings and gun-related crimes across Philadelphia. According to the DA’s Office, the crimes occurred between January 2022 and August 2023, with a total of 32 victims, including the murder of 18-year-old Aquill Foster.
“The 33rd Philadelphia County Investigating Grand Jury has determined that Maliek Robbins, Jayme Drayton, Marquan Flamer, Baahij Arthur, Atum El, Emmitt Hardee, Damar Holmes, Rahmel Humphrey, Carl Jarett, Quadir Spady, Elante Outerbridge, Eli Simmons, Malik Sweets, Ivan Williams, Javon Fisher, Baseer Johnson, Aliaan Harris, Taaj Lennon, Bryant Cumberbatch and Samerah Pendleton are implicated in one homicide, eighteen non-fatal shootings, three gunpoint carjackings, one car theft, and one gunpoint robbery,” stated the DA’s Office. “One other individual is not being named at this time as part of the ongoing investigation. The Investigating Grand Jury also determined that the defendants are connected to the street groups known as “The Senders,” “The Close Range Gang,” “7th Street,” and “PNB.”
“Five of the defendants were taken into custody today while several others were already in custody awaiting trial on other charges.”
The Charges are:
Maliek Robbins
Jayme Drayton
Marquan Flamer
Baahij Arthur
Atum El
Emmitt Hardee
Damar Holmes
Rahmel Humphrey
Carl Jarett
Quadir Spady
Elante Outerbridge
Eli Simmons
Malik Sweets
Ivan Williams
Javon Fisher
Baseer Johnson
Aliaan Harris
Taaj Lennon
Bryant Cumberbatch
Samerah Pendleton
“This is a good day for the citizens of Philadelphia, including the residents of South Philadelphia whose neighborhoods have been terrorized by this senseless violence like many other neighborhoods,” said Krasner. “Our office will continue to take down those who perpetrate violence and we will not stop until all Philadelphia neighborhoods feel safe. Thank you to Assistant District Attorneys Bill Fritze, Adam Farraye, and Katherine Reamy, the entire DAO’s Gun Violence Task Force, and our law enforcement partners for their thorough and decisive work in this investigation.”
Bill Fritze, the DA’s chief of the Gun Violence Task Force, added, “The charges we announced today are the continuation of the efforts we first disclosed a year ago with the sweeping indictments of these gangs based in South Philadelphia. Utilizing a number of methods, the continued investigations of those initial shootings committed in retaliation revealed other targeted shootings in which often innocent bystanders were struck by gunfire. We also thank the individuals whose hard work led to these arrests, specifically Detectives Kelley Gallagher, Patrick Cavalieri, David Gannone, Ryan Moore, Christopher Maitland, Andrew Gallagher, Steven Blackwell, Officers Copestick and Berryman from the Criminal Intelligence Unit, the Attorney General’s Office including Agent Matthew Winscomb, our partners at the FBI and the DIVIC, and Criminal Analysts Amanda McCourtie and Ashley Waples.”
Aiding the prosecutors in this case were the videos some of the gangbangers placed on Youtube, bragging about the shootings.
Back in the mid and late 1960s, I was a street corner half-a-hoodlum. Our South Philly street corner crew were no angels, and although we were more about girls, dancing,
