NYPD Cracks Down on Young Bronx Gangs After Killing Own Member, Wounding Innocent People

Nineteen members of two rival Bronx gangs—9Raq and Thirdside—have been charged in a sweeping 208-count indictment involving shootings, murder, and other crimes over a four-year span, authorities announced Monday, as reported by The New York Post.

The defendants, none older than 23 and some as young as 16, allegedly turned several neighborhoods into ongoing battlegrounds, including Claremont and Belmont.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said many of the violent incidents were carried out in broad daylight, sometimes near schools and courthouses.

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“They turn 161st Street, two blocks from Yankee Stadium, into a war zone,” Clark said. “The Bronx is bleeding, and I’m doing everything within my power to make it stop.”

Officials described multiple botched attacks between the warring gangs. One shooting on June 2, 2023, in rival territory resulted in the accidental killing of Nixon Rodriguez, a member of the 9Raq gang, by another member of his own crew.

In another incident on March 30, 2025, a shootout near a middle school led to 17 rounds being fired between gang members. No intended targets were hit, but a 22-year-old bystander was grazed in the head while driving nearby.

A Thirdside member later posted a drill rap on Instagram admitting to the failed shooting, rapping:

“I don’t know how we missed them.”

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On August 2, 2022, during another exchange of gunfire, a 34-year-old man walking by on Finley Avenue was struck in the lower back. In a separate incident that year, a 75-year-old man was shot in the thigh while standing outside.

Six gang members were arrested last week as part of the takedown. Ten others are already in custody on separate charges, and four remain at large.

Three suspects have been arraigned and held without bail, one was arraigned with bail set, and one is pending arraignment. One female arrested during the operation was arraigned and held on bail, but was not charged as a gang member.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch joined Clark in calling for a review of the state’s “Raise the Age” law, which raised the age of adult criminal responsibility from 16 to 18 between 2018 and 2019.

“There’s an endless flow of young people who believe as though they don’t have a stake in tomorrow,” Adams said. “When a bullet leaves the pathway of a gun, it often hits an unintended target.”

Tisch added that some of the indicted suspects had pulled the trigger multiple times. “These aren’t kids who just made one mistake,” she said. “Our Raise the Age law needs to be re-examined because it removed the criminal consequences that prevent teens from escalating violence.”

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