NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of suspects were arrested early Wednesday in a wide-ranging investigation of rival street gangs that terrorized a Bronx neighborhood with crimes including murder, robbery and drug trafficking.
Hundreds of federal agents and police officers, some using helicopters and armored trucks, were involved in the predawn takedown. Prosecutors said that more than 100 people were named in federal indictments.
Among those charged was a drug dealer already serving state prison time for killing a 92-year-old woman with a stray bullet, authorities said.
The woman, Sadie Mitchell, was watching television in her Bronx home in 2009 when the bullet went through her living room window and hit her in the hip before puncturing her lung.
Two days later, police arrested Jamal Blair, 18, who lived nearby. Investigators said Blair had admitted during questioning that he fired a pistol during a fight between rival groups in the neighborhood.
An indictment accused Blair of being a member of a gang that also shot and killed two other victims, ages 15 and 18, during the ongoing turf war.
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