Members of Brooklyn-Based “Ninedee Gang” Indicted for Racketeering and the Murder of a Former Federal Witness

 

Gang Members Allegedly Plotted the Retaliatory Killing of Shatavia Walls at the Louis H. Pink Houses in July 2020

 A nine-count superseding indictment was unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging four members of the Ninedee Gang, a violent street gang based at the Louis H. Pink Houses (“Pink Houses”) in East New York, with racketeering, murder in-aid-of racketeering, drug trafficking, firearms offenses and robbery.  The new charges were announced against defendants Quintin Green, Chayanne Fernandez, Maliek Miller and Kevin Wint.  Green and Wint were arrested this morning and will be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr.  Fernandez and Miller were already in federal custody as a result of prior charges and will be arraigned at later date.  

Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Jacqueline Maguire, Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office (FBI), and Dermot F. Shea, Commissioner, New York City Police Department (NYPD), announced the arrests and charges.

“It is our hope that today’s charges against members of the Ninedee Gang bring some solace to the family of Shatavia Walls as we seek justice for her senseless, cold-blooded murder,” stated Acting United States Attorney Kasulis.  “This Office and its law enforcement partners are committed to ending the brutality that violent gangs so wantonly inflict on citizens in our communities.  I commend the FBI special agents and the NYPD detectives for their relentless investigative work on the case.”

“This investigation serves as a warning to criminals who behave as if there are no consequences to their actions. We have the ability in the federal criminal justice system to put these violent gang members away for a long time, and we will persist in our efforts to get them off the streets.  Our outstanding partnership with the NYPD allows us to pursue the most violent and persistent offenders and hold them accountable for their blatant disregard for human life and safe communities,” stated FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Maguire.

“The NYPD remains committed to providing every resource possible to dismantling the violent gangs and crews that prey on New Yorkers. I commend our police investigators and the prosecutors in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York for leading us to justice with this federal indictment,” stated NYPD Commissioner Shea.

As detailed in the superseding indictment and court filings, the Ninedee Gang is a criminal enterprise operating in East New York, Brooklyn.  The gang’s leaders, including Wint, promoted the gang on social media and in rap videos, highlighting its violence, drug sales and fraudulent activities. 

The plan to kill Walls was allegedly hatched by Green, Fernandez, Miller and others following a dispute on the Fourth of July 2020 over the lighting of fireworks.  During a confrontation with the victim, Miller called her a “snitch” and fired a gunshot into the air.  Walls had been called as a government witness one year earlier during a federal criminal trial in Brooklyn and testified that she had been shot by another Pink Houses gang member.

On the evening of July 7, 2020, Ninedee Gang members, including Green and a juvenile male, opened fire on Walls as she walked through a courtyard at the Pink Houses.  Walls was shot multiple times and succumbed to the gunshot wounds on July 17, 2020.  Ballistic evidence recovered from the scene of the fatal shooting showed that one of the handguns used to kill Walls matched the firearm used by Miller on the Fourth of July.  In the days following Walls’ murder, the defendants posted on Facebook a newspaper article about the murder and claimed credit on behalf of the Ninedee Gang.  

Additionally, Green is charged with the Hobbs Act robbery of a Target store on Staten Island on November 3, 2020; Wint with access device fraud; Fernandez, Miller and Wint with conspiracy to distribute marijuana; and Green, Fernandez and Miller with unlawful use and possession of firearms.

The charges in the superseding indictment are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. 

If convicted of murder in-aid-of racketeering, Green, Fernandez and Miller face a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment and are eligible for the death penalty.  If convicted of racketeering, Wint faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment, and up to 15 years’ imprisonment for accessory after the fact to Walls’s murder.