Authorities arrested 19 people Wednesday with ties to three West Philadelphia-based gangs for their alleged role in a spree of retaliatory gun violence that impacted dozens of victims over a period of less than two years.
New charges were filed in five murders, and prosecutors accuse the suspects of participating in a total of 21 shootings between September 2022 and May 2024.
Seven alleged members of the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC; five people connected to CCK; and two from the Parkside Killers, or PSK, were part of the bust. Investigators said the groups used bragging Instagram posts and music videos to fuel violence.
The songs, typically belonging to the drill rap genre, were monetized on YouTube and elsewhere, creating an income stream for the gangs and an incentive to keep shooting, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
“If your children are listening to violent drill music, you are causing part of the problem,” Assistant District Attorney William Fritze said at a Wednesday afternoon news conference. “When we get on and we watch and that commercial gets on, whoever pulled that trigger is getting funding.”
The incidents included a September 2022 double shooting in North Philadelphia that left an 8-year-old wounded, and a triple shooting one month later at a memorial for another victim of gun violence in Mantua.
“It is a very exciting day for law enforcement,” said Police Captain James Kearney, of the PPD’s Shooting Investigation Group. “They might have thought they got away with it – these are several years old – but they didn't.”
A majority of the suspects were already in custody for other alleged crimes; however, police did execute three raids Wednesday morning in Philadelphia, along with operations in Absecon, New Jersey, and Indiana, Kearney told reporters.
Outstanding warrants remain for several other individuals, prosecutors said, though the DA’s Office declined to identify them.
The arrests were the culmination of a two-year grand jury investigation, which produced a lengthy, sealed report.
Fritze compared the probe to similar investigations targeting gangs, such as efforts over the years to bring down BNG, o2da4 and groups headquartered along 31st and 27th streets in South Philadelphia.
“We know that violent crime is dropping, but we're not going to let our foot off the gas,” he added. “We have a ton of unsolved cases in the city of Philadelphia, and we have violence occurring every day.”
