Charges detail a 2024–25 campaign of nine shootings, one homicide and a courthouse slashing, Manhattan prosecutors say.
NEW YORK CITY, NY — Thirteen alleged members of a Harlem street crew known as “OY” have been indicted on murder conspiracy and related charges after a months-long string of violence that included nine shootings, a fatal beating of a 16-year-old and a slashing inside Manhattan Criminal Court, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said the case centers on coordinated attacks against rival groups across Harlem and Upper Manhattan. The indictment marks a new phase in a joint investigation by his office and the New York Police Department that recovered 14 semiautomatic firearms and mapped violent encounters near apartment complexes, delis and busy streets. The charges elevate an already tense rivalry into a test of how authorities pursue group violence that threatens bystanders while spilling into public spaces, including the courthouse where the defendants were themselves due to appear.
According to the indictment, most of the violence unfolded throughout 2024, with one earlier shooting in February 2021 and a final fusillade in January 2025. Prosecutors say the crew sought out rivals around NYCHA developments — including the Drew Hamilton Houses, Harlem River Houses, the Douglass Houses and the Polo Grounds Towers — sometimes traveling into those areas with loaded guns. On June 18, 2024, several defendants confronted 16-year-old Tresaun Clements near West 148th Street and Bradhurst Avenue, asked whether he was from the Polo Grounds and demanded his belongings before punching him. Clements fell, slipped into a coma and died weeks later. “As alleged, the defendants worked together to brazenly and indiscriminately commit a wide range of violence,” Bragg said. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the pattern “deadly” and “brazen,” praising detectives and prosecutors for the takedown.
The nine shootings detailed in court papers include episodes near delis and on busy corners. On May 22, 2024, prosectors say multiple defendants opened fire toward a group near West 141st Street and Hamilton Place. On June 10, 2024, at least five shots were fired near West 140th Street and Broadway. On Sept. 26, 2024, a defendant allegedly ran into the roadway at West 163rd Street and Broadway and fired three shots as a car sped off. On Dec. 2, 2024, gunfire into a deli across from the Drew Hamilton Houses wounded an innocent bystander, according to the indictment. Prosecutors also cite a Jan. 6, 2025, incident in which members carried four firearms to the Douglass Houses area and fired about 20 shots at two victims outside a deli on West 103rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Two of the 13 defendants are under 18; both will be prosecuted as adults, prosecutors said. Investigators say 14 semiautomatic firearms were recovered over the course of the case.
The violence moved from the street to the courthouse on Jan. 28, 2025, when three defendants allegedly smuggled two scalpel blades through security at 100 Centre St., waited outside Supreme Court Part 93 and then slashed two rivals near the elevator bank before court officers intervened. Separately, prosecutors say a 16-year-old named Clarence Jones was fatally shot on Oct. 24, 2024, in a related conflict; that homicide is charged in a separate open case. Messages shared after Jones’s death vowed retribution, and within hours, gunmen allegedly traveled to the St. Nicholas Houses and opened fire. In the days that followed, one defendant allegedly fired into a building during a vigil for Jones. Prosecutors say some defendants later celebrated Clements’s death in a music video posted online.
District Attorney Bragg said 12 of the 13 defendants face one count each of second-degree conspiracy and fourth-degree conspiracy, with the group collectively charged in 66 counts that also include attempted murder, attempted first-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The indictment names several alleged participants in specific acts, including Alfred Bernard, Ronald Pendergast, Tyjae Smith, Shasha Davis, Dandre Murray, Rashamel Johnson, Jason Barnes, Boschi Pope Jr., Jordan Pace, Joel Lucas, Elijah Nealy, Aydin Jones and Zakaria Camara. Prosecutors say the crew is based in Central Harlem and often crossed into rival territory to assert control over drug sales and status. Many of the shootings happened late at night near housing complexes and storefronts, with bystanders placed at risk. Some incidents remain under investigation, and authorities have not publicly detailed how each weapon was obtained.
Records describe a feud that predated the 2024 surge. The earliest shooting in the indictment dates to Feb. 16, 2021, when a gunman fired at a rival near West 141st Street and Eighth Avenue, according to prosecutors. The locations cited — the Drew Hamilton Houses, Harlem River Houses, the Douglass Houses and the Polo Grounds — have seen crew rivalries for years, police officials say. In 2024, the pace accelerated: the May and June shootings clustered within blocks of one another; an October day brought both the killing of Jones, charged separately, and retaliatory fire that night; a vigil a few days later also ended with shots into a building. The Dec. 2 deli shooting put an uninvolved shopper in the hospital, highlighting the risk to residents who had no part in the rivalry.
Arrests followed months of surveillance, search warrants and social media review, according to authorities. Investigators say they recovered 14 semiautomatic firearms and traced movements by looking at phones, cameras and transit trips to rivals’ blocks. Court filings say the crew sometimes took buses to the target areas and coordinated by message, then dispersed after firing. The slain teenager, Clements, was not a rival, prosecutors said. Family members were notified of the charges this week. Defense attorneys for several defendants either declined to comment or said they had not yet reviewed the full discovery. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office credited specific detectives and analysts who helped connect incidents across neighborhoods and months.
If convicted on the top conspiracy charges, the defendants face significant prison time under New York law. Initial court appearances were held in Manhattan Supreme Court, and additional hearings are expected in the coming weeks as prosecutors move to consolidate overlapping acts and as defense attorneys file motions to suppress evidence seized during the investigation. The separate homicide case tied to the October 2024 killing of Jones remains open. A status update in the conspiracy case is expected later this month, and prosecutors indicated that more arrests are possible as ballistics and digital evidence are processed. The court has not yet set a trial date.
On Thursday morning, neighbors around West 148th Street described a block still marked by grief. Candles and weathered photos remain where friends held a vigil for Clements. “We heard a thud, then sirens,” said a resident who lives above the corner where the June 2024 assault occurred. Outside the Douglass Houses deli on West 103rd Street, a clerk said bullet holes were patched but still visible under fresh paint. “People just want the shooting to stop,” the clerk said, adding that patrol cars have been more common at night. At the Manhattan courthouse, lawyers and officers recalled the slashing that cut through the usual bustle near the elevators. “That day changed how we watch the hallway,” a court officer said.
As of Thursday, all 13 defendants had been charged and were awaiting their next court dates in Manhattan Supreme Court. Prosecutors said additional investigative steps are underway, with another update expected before the end of December.
Author note: Last updated December 11, 2025.