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Feud between Central City's Byrd and Ghost gangs sparked deadly quadruple shooting last summer, NOPD alleges

The Advocate - 3/31/2018

March 31--A gang member from the former Calliope public housing complex in Central City had a hand in a deadly quadruple shooting that targeted members of a rival set on the edge of Gert Town last summer, New Orleans police alleged this week.

Dwight Washington, 24, was jailed Thursday night on two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the June 15 slayings of Terran Young, 19, and Darrell Pollard, 28.

Court documents obtained Friday describe Washington as a member of the "Ghost Gang," whose stomping grounds are said to be the housing development now known as Marrero Commons. It appears to be one of the first times that officials have publicly referred to that particular group by name.

The documents also describe Young, Pollard and two other victims wounded in the attack as members of the so-called Byrd Gang, which is based at the former Magnolia housing project in another section of Central City and which has been developing a level of notoriety for some time.

Washington allegedly helped ambush the victims as they left a rap concert Uptown that Byrd Gang associates were promoting. Surveillance video footage and cell phone usage data then led investigators to Washington.

Officers first learned of the bloodshed as they responded to a report of a shooting near South Carrollton Avenue and Earhart Boulevard. Young was lying in the middle of the street with multiple bullet wounds and died after paramedics took him to a hospital, police said.

Officers found Pollard about a half-hour later and several miles away, lying in the back seat of a Honda Civic near North Johnson and Bienville streets in Treme.

A third, unidentified man also injured in the shooting then arrived at a hospital with wounds that were not life-threatening. A fourth victim was hit by the gunfire but never sought medical treatment, police later learned.

At least one of the victims had been struck by a bullet from a large-caliber rifle, police said.

Investigators ultimately concluded that a feud between the Ghost and Byrd gangs sparked the violence, with the former group timing the ambush to occur as the victims left the concert. Video surveillance secured by the police captured the shooting, and it showed multiple triggermen firing from a car that fled to Marrero Commons.

The car was later ditched, and police discovered spent .223-caliber shell casings in the vehicle.

Police said interviews then convinced them Washington was one of the shooters.

Data from Washington's cell phone suggested he was near the concert venue before the gunfire began. Surveillance video showed the shooters' car was in that vicinity about the same time, and the vehicle was recorded following the victims as they left, court documents claim.

Other surveillance footage showed someone matching Washington's description exit the shooters' car after it arrived at Marrero Commons.

The man was carrying a rifle that appeared capable of firing .223-caliber rounds. Data from Washington's cell phone suggested he was at the housing development at that same time and later on where the car was ditched, court documents say.

Homicide Detective Leonard Bendy obtained a warrant to arrest Washington on March 1.

Criminal District Court Magistrate Commissioner Brigid Collins set his bail at $1.5 million on Friday morning.

While police didn't say where they got the surveillance video for the case, the nonprofit Project NOLA group reported previously that its network of crime cameras captured footage that was of interest to those leading the investigation.

Washington's arrest is only the latest criminal case to involve mention of the Byrd Gang.

In early March, Orleans Parish prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging three alleged Byrd Gang members -- James Alexander, Chance Skipper and Randy Calvin -- with peddling heroin. Prosecutors said they moved to file the charges in a bid to curb an upsurge of violence in Central City, where the Byrd Gang was locked in a turf war with another group.

While the rival group wasn't named, prosecutors specified that it hailed from the former Calliope project -- the same as the Ghost Gang.

Alexander, Skipper and Calvin had all been on authorities' radar since at least August, when Alexander was accused of provoking a daytime shootout in the heart of Magazine Street's shopping district that left him, a rival and an uninvolved hairstylist at a nearby salon wounded.

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