A news statement from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said that two men were charged Thursday with shooting and killing a 1-year-old boy in New York City last year.
David Gardner was the name of the baby who died on the sidewalk in front of Brooklyn’s Raymond Bush Playground in July of last year.
A little less than a year after the killing, Dashawn Austin, 25, and Akeem Artis, 24, were charged with murder and shootout that killed Davell. The violence was caused by gang rivalry and revenge, according to the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Both men are members of a local street gang called the Hoolies.
The charge says that Artis was the driver of a car that Austin and a second shooter, who was not named, got out of and then shot into a crowd of people at a cookout on July 12, 2020. The baby was one of the four people who were shot. The other victims, who were all innocent witnesses, lived.
Three of the men are also charged with 63 counts of gang-related crimes, including multiple counts of murder and weapons charges.
CNN is trying to confirm who is representing the suspects in court.
A new report from Gonzalez’s office says that between May 2018 and September 2020, members of the Hoolies gang are accused of killing four people and shooting eight others eight times, but none of them died. The news report said that seven of the 13 people killed were not enemies of the gang and were not doing anything wrong.
“Deceptive gang violence, like the kind we’re alleging in this case, has killed and traumatized far too many people,” Gonzalez said. “Among them was Davell Gardner, a sweet, loved baby boy who had his whole life ahead of him.”
“They were willing to kill without regard for innocent people caught in the crossfire,” says Dermot Shea, the commissioner of police in New York City.
Shea said, “This violence has to stop, and cases like these are stronger when NYPD detectives and Assistant District Attorneys work together from the start.”
