Six Members Of Bronx Crew Charged For Spree Of 2020 Violence That Killed Two People And Wounded A Third

 

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton; Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”), Ricky J. Patel; and Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), Jessica S. Tisch, announced a Superseding Indictment charging STORM JONES; MICHAEL ORTIZ, a/k/a “Dot”; RANDY MACCOW; MARIO MEDINA, a/k/a “Flacco”; JAYSON HOLLAND, a/k/a “Jerry,” a/k/a “Ninety”; and FRANCIS OFORI, a/k/a “Ghana,” in connection with two homicides and a third non-fatal shooting in 2020.  The charges relate to the August 2, 2020, killing of 53-year-old Clarence Adams; the September 1, 2020, murder of 29-year-old Jeffrey German; and the November 3, 2020, shooting of a third individual, who survived.  Each of the defendants was either in New York City or New York State custody and brought into federal custody, with the final two defendants arraigned in Manhattan federal court.  The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman.      

“As alleged, these defendants wreaked havoc across a Bronx neighborhood through a string of robberies and killings,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.  “New Yorkers want and deserve safe streets and those who pursue violence as a way of life will be brought to justice.”    

“As alleged, these defendants carried out their violent sprees with depravity, which resulted in the deaths of two victims and the near loss of a third,” said HSI Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel.  “However long it takes, HSI New York, the NYPD and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York will relentlessly target violent criminals to ensure no victims suffer in vain and the public remains as safe as possible.”

“These alleged Elsmere crew members carried out cold-blooded murders, violent crime sprees, and tried to dodge accountability—all while carrying illegal guns and illicit narcotics,” said NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch.  “Two New Yorkers lost their lives, another was seriously injured, and entire communities were shattered by this violence.  The NYPD’s strategy is simple: to keep our streets safe, remove gangs from the equation—and that’s why we have carried out more than 50 gang-related takedowns and arrested almost 400 gang members this year alone.  I want to thank the NYPD investigators, HSI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their relentless work to make sure these defendants are brought to justice.”

According to the allegations in the Superseding Indictment, other court documents, and statements made during court proceedings:[1]

Beginning in at least 2020, a group of individuals (the “Elsmere Crew”) utilized the residence located at 804 Elsmere Place in the Bronx (“804 Elsmere”) as a gathering place to use narcotics, carry firearms, plan crimes of violence, and hide from law enforcement after committing those crimes.  On August 2, 2020, Elsmere Crew member JONES, while selling drugs several blocks from 804 Elsmere, shot 53-year-old Clarence Adams, who had confronted JONES about JONES’s drug dealing.  Adams died from his injuries.  After the shooting, JONES fled to 804 Elsmere, where he met with other members of the Elsmere Crew.

In fall 2020, JONES, ORTIZ, MACCOW, MEDINA, HOLLAND, and OFORI planned and carried out two similar robberies near 804 Elsmere.  In each robbery, members of the Elsmere Crew persuaded a victim to deliver marijuana to the vicinity of 804 Elsmere, left together from 804 Elsmere to the site of the purported drug purchase, confronted and robbed the victim with firearms, and fled to 804 Elsmere afterward.

JONES, ORTIZ, MACCOW, MEDINA, and HOLLAND committed the first robbery, in which they shot and killed 29-year-old Jeffrey German on September 1, 2020. ORTIZ and OFORI participated in the second robbery with other Elsmere Crew members on November 3, 2020, in which they shot a victim, who survived.

A chart containing the defendants’ names, ages, charges, and maximum penalties is set forth below.

The statutory maximum sentences are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

Mr. Clayton praised the outstanding investigative work of HSI and the NYPD.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crimes Unit.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael R. Herman and Patrick R. Moroney are in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Superseding Indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Count	Charge	Defendants	Maximum Penalty
1	Conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery  (Jeffrey German robbery and murder)  18 U.S.C. § 1951	STORM JONES, 26;  MICHAEL ORTIZ,   a/k/a “Dot,” 26;  RANDY MACCOW, 24  MARIO MEDINA,   a/k/a “Flacco,” 31;  JAYSON HOLLAND, a/k/a “Jerry,” a/k/a “Ninety,” 25	20 years in prison
2	Hobbs Act robbery  18 U.S.C. §§ 1951 and 2  (Jeffrey German robbery and murder)  18 U.S.C. §§ 1951 and 2	JONES, ORTIZ, MACCOW, MEDINA, and HOLLAND	20 years in prison
3	Murder through the use of a firearm  (Jeffrey German robbery and murder)  18 U.S.C. §§ 924(j) and 2	JONES, ORTIZ, MACCOW, MEDINA, and HOLLAND	Life in prison
4	Firearm use, carrying, and possession  (Jeffrey German robbery and murder)  18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c) and 2	JONES, ORTIZ, MACCOW, MEDINA, and HOLLAND	Life in prison
5	Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy  (Non-fatal shooting)  18 U.S.C. § 1951	ORTIZ and FRANCIS OFORI, a/k/a “Ghana,” 22	20 years in prison
6	Hobbs Act robbery  (Non-fatal shooting)  18 U.S.C. §§ 1951 and 2	ORTIZ and OFORI	20 years in prison
7	Firearm use, carrying, and possession  (Non-fatal shooting)  18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c) and 2	ORTIZ and OFORI	Life in prison
8	Narcotics conspiracy  21 U.S.C. § 846	JONES	20 years in prison
9	Firearm use, carrying, and possession  (Clarence Adams homicide)  18 U.S.C. §§ 924(c) and 2	JONES	Life in prison

 

[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Superseding Indictment, and the description of the Superseding Indictment set forth herein, constitute only allegations, and every fact described should be treated as an allegation.  

Department of State Employee Sentenced for Transmitting National Defense Information to Suspected Chinese Government Agents

A U.S. Department of State (DOS) employee was sentenced to 48 months in prison for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he believed to be working for the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  

“The defendant threw away his career, betrayed his country, and abused the trust the United States placed in him by granting his Top-Secret security clearance. He will spend years of his life in prison for passing classified information to individuals he believed to be Chinese government agents,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “This sentence serves as a warning to those who would violate the trust placed in them by our Nation and double-cross the American people.” 

“The price of Michael Schena’s disgraceful betrayal of his country is far more than the paltry amount for which he traded his honor,” said U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia. “His acts of selfish avarice left that price to be paid by the faithful women and men of our intelligence community and the nation they serve. The cost Schena will pay is the loss of his integrity, his reputation, and, by this sentence, his freedom.”

“Michael Schena deliberately undermined U.S. national security and put American lives at risk by selling classified information to the Chinese government,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “The Chinese government continues to aggressively target U.S. government employees to steal our classified information, and this sentencing makes clear the FBI and our partners will do everything in our power to defend the homeland. Anyone thinking of betraying their oath to the United States should consider the severe consequences and know the FBI will work tirelessly to bring them to justice.”

According to court documents, beginning in April 2022, Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, communicated with people he met online through various communication platforms and provided them sensitive U.S. government information, in exchange for money. Two of these individuals represented themselves as employees of international consulting companies. Despite clear indications and believing that they were working on behalf of the PRC, Schena continued his relationship with them.

In August 2024, Schena met an individual at a hotel in Peru who provided Schena $10,000 and a cellphone that was intended to be used for Schena to receive taskings and transmit information.

In October 2024, while at work, Schena used the cellphone he received in Peru to photograph and transmit at least four classified documents that contained national defense information and which were classified at the SECRET level. In February 2025, surveillance video captured Schena again using the cellphone to photograph seven documents marked as SECRET that contained national defense information. FBI agents seized the cellphone before Schena could transmit photographs of these classified documents to his handlers, and arrested Schena.

John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia; Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI Counterintelligence Division; and Special Agent in Charge Daniel Wierzbicki of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff.

The FBI Washington Field Office investigated the case with assistance from the FBI Richmond Field Office, the Department of Justice’s Office of Enforcement Operations, and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Office of Counterintelligence.

Comptroller Lander Doles Out a D Grade or Lower for More Than Half of NYC Bus Lines

 

Nearly three-quarters of Manhattan buses got a D or F for speeds as low as 5 MPH

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander unveiled a report card for New York City’s 332 bus lines operating across the five boroughs, with 186 of the 332 bus lines getting a D or F grade. Leveraging real-time MTA bus data, the report evaluated every city bus line’s on-time performance, speed, and the frequency of service delays. By putting each bus line on an A-F grading report card, the City and State can target interventions to improve bus performance.

“New York City is home to the largest bus network in all of North America, yet pedestrians can walk faster than some buses, like the M34 in Midtown,” said Comptroller Brad Lander. “New Yorkers deserve a system that actually gets people where they need to go. From Brooklyn seniors waiting over 20 minutes for bunched buses to Manhattan commuters crawling at slow 5 mph speeds, the impact of the City and MTA’s failures is unmistakable and felt daily for thousands. Our office’s report card offers a clear roadmap to pinpoint the most necessary interventions to improve bus service for all.”

The comprehensive evaluation detailed in the report, Life in the Slow Lane: A Report Card for NYC Buses, builds on the Comptroller’s April 2025 report Behind Schedule that documented how bus speeds remain stagnant over the last decade, despite NYCDOT and MTA’s pledges to improve the nearly one-in-three buses that fail to arrive at scheduled stops on time.

Key findings 

The report reveals consistent patterns of underperformance across the city’s bus system and provides granularity to the disparities between boroughs and service lines:

• A majority of buses perform at “below average” standards: 56% of bus lines (186 out of 332) received a grade of D or lower due to bunching and consistently failed to arrive at scheduled stops on-time. By comparison, only 27 lines (8%) received a B or higher. Just seven bus lines throughout the city received an A grade.
• Almost three-quarters (73%) of Manhattan buses got a D or F, worse than in any of the other four boroughs, largely due to heavy traffic in Manhattan, where some buses run at speeds as low as 5 mph.
• Fifteen percent of Brooklyn buses are bunched, a rate considerably higher than the citywide average of 10.6%. This means that 15% of buses in Brooklyn fail to maintain even spacing along their routes, creating unreliable service and wait times regularly in excess of 10 minutes for riders on lines where average wait times should be no more than five minutes.
• Express buses have higher average speeds but a much lower on-time reliability rate than the system overall. Many express buses travel across bridges, highways, and tunnels, allowing them to reach speeds most local buses cannot. However, they fail to reach stops at their scheduled times compared to local or SBS buses. All of the ten bus lines with on-time performance rates below 50% are express buses.
• SBS lines perform slightly better than local and express buses overall. 16% of SBS bus routes received A or B grades, compared to just 8% of routes overall. The success is likely attributable to stop consolidation and all-door boarding on these routes.

While the persistent issues with bus speeds and reliability hamper bus services, the report finds some areas of improvement. Using the most recent data before and after the implementation of congestion pricing in January 2025, Comptroller Lander’s report finds that the 106 bus lines operating in the congestion pricing zones say reliability scores improve by 9.2 percent in the five months after implementation. Express buses saw the largest growth in speeds throughout this period.

While solutions like dedicated busways, transit signal priority, and automated enforcement are effective tools to boost bus performance, they have not met their full potential in New York City. The report card offers a clear path for identifying underperformance and provides a framework to measure meaningful outcomes.

The Comptroller’s report recommends the City and MTA set performance-based goals for improving bus performance. Public reporting should link policy interventions and new infrastructure to impacts for bus riders. Potential performance targets could include:

• Increasing speeds by 15% citywide, moving 90% of C-grade bus lines to B-grade or better.
• Reducing the bunching rate on high-frequency bus routes from 10.6% to 5%.
• Improving reliability on the 40 worst-performing bus lines.

Read the Comptroller’s report here: https://comptroller.nyc.gov/reports/life-in-the-slow-lane

Join Assemblymember John Zaccaro, Jr. For a Movie Under The Stars Night

 

Lights, Camera, Action!

Friends, please join me and Team JZ on Saturday, September 6, 2025 for a Movie Under the Stars event featuring the 2025 children's favorite Lilo & Stitch

 

This event is FREE to the public. 

• When: Saturday, September 6, 2025
• Where: Loreto Playground (1111 Van Nest Ave.)
• Time: Movie will begin at approximately 8:00pm

I'm looking forward to seeing you all there to enjoy a fantastic night under the stars with friends and family. 

 

Yours Truly,

John Zaccaro, Jr.

MTA - PSA Newsletter 13 (September 2025)

Welcome to the quarterly newsletter for the MTA’s Penn Station Access Project which will bolster equity, regional connectivity, and reliability by upgrading Amtrak’s existing Hell Gate Line and providing four new accessible stations in the East Bronx. Read on to learn more about recent progress, community engagement, and upcoming work. For past newsletter issues, click here. For updates on specific areas along the project corridor where work will take place, sign up here.

Amtrak train crossing Leggett Interlocking, July 2025

PSA Progress: Commissioning of Leggett Interlocking

The successful commissioning of Leggett Interlocking in July marks a major milestone for the Penn Station Access project, paving the way for safer, faster, and more efficient construction without impacting Amtrak’s regular service. Commissioning Leggett Interlocking near Hunts Point creates a shorter diversion of trains during track outages, allowing crews more freedom to work within the Amtrak right-of-way while maintaining passenger service.

An interlocking is a ‘track intersection’ which allows trains to cross from one track to another parallel track. It consists of track, track switches, and overhead contact wiring. It ensures that no conflicting movements can occur, making it impossible for trains to be routed onto the same track at the same time. Interlockings are essential to train safety, operational flexibility, and network reliability. To bring Leggett Interlocking online, over 900 feet of new track was built, and a new signal system was installed, tested, and completed. At this location, 95% of overhead catenary system (OCS) structures have been completed, which moves the project significantly closer to integrating PSA into the broader regional network.

Backfilling approach slabs on Bronx River Bridge, June 2025

Overhead view of Parkchester/Van Nest Station progress, July 2025

What’s Next

With the commissioning of Leggett Interlocking, PSA can expedite work and utilize Continuous Track Outages (CTO), a long-term track outage necessary to continue installing new tracks, OCS, bridge work, and additional signal upgrades and to make space to build the center platforms for the four passenger stations. The new interlocking allows Amtrak to provide the PSA team with these track outages without changing their existing train schedule and significantly reduces the burden of rerouting trains and streamlines coordination. During the CTO, Amtrak reserves an assigned track for PSA use. The current CTO will continue through the end of the year, is located near the Parkchester/ Van Nest station area. The CTOs enable uninterrupted day and night construction activities along one track to advance track installation and station development, while keeping passenger service running smoothly.

Leggett is the first of five interlockings (four new, one reconfigured) to be delivered as part of the PSA project, each one bringing enhanced flexibility and reliability for what will be a 4-track corridor through the Hell Gate section of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. During the CTO, effort is focused in the Van Nest area, but work is also progressing steadily at all four station locations. More progress is on the horizon, and we are excited to share those updates with the community as work continues!  

Jesse Jameson, Project Executive Meet the Team: Jesse Jameson Jesse Jameson, Project Executive for the Halmar International / RailWorks Joint Venture, brings more than four decades of industry experience to the Penn Station Access Project. In his words, the role of a project executive is to oversee the management of subcontractors, material procurement, and schedule while being responsible for the relationship between the project owner and the contractor. Essentially, when there’s a problem, Jesse sits down with Project CEO Jolyon Handler to solve it. Even with his years of expertise, Jesse is aware of the distinct challenges posed by this complicated project—interagency coordination, difficult construction environments, and unusual design parameters have all required innovative solutions. He described the constraints of working within the highly active and narrow Amtrak right-of-way as “constantly trying to fit 10 pounds into a 5-pound bag”. Jesse gives credit to his team for working through these issues. “Only a few design firms can handle this kind of work,” he remarked about Jacobs, the lead designer, “The overhead catenary system (OCS) is unique and not a lot of people know how to design it.”  He commended RailWorks for their “extensive experience working with Amtrak,” they have managed the complex track and electrical aspects of the Project handily. Jesse is passionate about moving this megaproject forward in the face of so many hurdles. He looks forward to ushering this new rail line into operation one solution at a time. When he's not at work, you can find Jesse spending time with his friends and family at the race track. He is an avid racecar builder and driver, and is a 3-time winner of the IOE Award at the 24 Hours of Lemons race. Night crew celebrates the commissioning of Leggett Interlocking, July 2025 Celebrating a Major Milestone at Leggett: Night Crew Appreciation On July 22nd, the PSA team celebrated the dedication and hard work of our night-shift crew members and commemorated the commissioning of Leggett Interlocking with a hot breakfast on-site. The event recognized the many late nights and early mornings that made this achievement possible. It was a fun and meaningful way to mark this major milestone and build momentum as the project moves ahead into the next phase of construction. Contact Us  Web: new.mta.info/project/penn-station-access  Email: PSAOutreach@mtacd.org | Hotline: 347-263-7837