Alleged Long Island Bloods gang members indicted in 3-year violence spree

Prosecutors on Thursday announced a 103-count indictment against 31 alleged members and associates of a Long Island set of the Bloods street gang on charges stemming from a yearslong campaign of vengeance that included the killing of an elementary school teacher.

Authorities — which included Nassau, Suffolk and federal investigators — said that campaign involved 18 shootings and the mistaken identity murder of Kimberly Collins Midgette, 44, a Bronx teacher killed while dropping off her 10-year-old daughter at the girl's father’s house in Hempstead in April 2023. The killing took place while the girl was in the back seat of the vehicle, which the shooters believed to be that of a rival gang member.

Kicking it off was the August 2021 killing of Alonte Shipp, an alleged member of Long Island’s “Afghan” set of the Bloodhound Brims, according to the indictment. The gang's rivals on Long Island included Hit Squad Brims, Mac Balla Bloods and 9-Trey Bloods. Its alleged members followed written bylaws, communicated over Snapchat and Instagram and used code words like “wifey” for gun and “spin the block” for shooting, according to the indictment.

Days after Shipp's killing, Afghan Brim members met to plan revenge, according to the indictment, with several shooting up the North Amityville house of a rival gang member they suspected was behind the death, according to the indictment.

“This was tit-for-tat violence,” Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney said Thursday at Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood. “Everyone goes on social media and talks about it, then there’s retaliation, then retaliation for the retaliation.” At the same time, he said, “drug-dealing and robberies were committed” to finance the gang.

The indictment charged alleged crimes including armed assault, armed robbery and larcenies that took place from Hempstead to Hampton Bays but were concentrated in Bay Shore, Coram, Mastic and Riverhead.

Authorities said some of the Brims’ activities were recorded on video, which they played at Thursday’s announcement and showed men identified as alleged gang members spraying bullets into residential neighborhoods.

Among those indicted were three men Tierney said were at the top of the gang’s hierarchy: Latique Johnson, 44, once of the Bronx but now in federal prison in Victorville, California; Oumar Barry, 27, of Hempstead; and Jussiah Herbert, 26, of Copiague.

Johnson was incarcerated after a 2019 conviction on federal racketeering, narcotics, assault and firearms charges, federal prosecutors said.

Nicknamed La Brim, Johnson issued orders from prison through proxies, Tierney said. The indictment indicates that authorities had access to at least some of his conversations with alleged gang associates and to some of his financial records. Lower-ranking gang members paid dues into Johnson’s prison commissary account, from which authorities seized $31,000, Tierney said.

At least once, a member paid Johnson through Cash App, describing the payment as “Afghan Fees,” according to the indictment. Johnson is scheduled to be released in 2040, according to federal Bureau of Prison records. Meanwhile, he has published a book, “Making Your Wrongs Right: Through Prayer and Scripture,” advertised on Amazon.

Johnson and Herbert do not have lawyers currently, said Tania Lopez, Tierney’s spokeswoman. Herbert will be assigned one when he is arraigned next Tuesday, she said.

Barry’s lawyer, Jason Russo of Garden City-based Gaitman and Russo, is representing Barry on a separate homicide charge in Nassau for Midgette’s killing and said he had not yet been retained for the most recent indictment.

Barry pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in the killing, according to court records. He was not charged as a shooter in that case, Russo said.

Russo said his client “100%” denied gang involvement. “We’ve never been shown any evidence he was part of this gang or participated in gang activities,” Russo said.

The indictment names Reymon Rodriguez, Joel Badger and Keysean Meade as shooters in Midgette’s killing. Rodriguez, 18, of Hauppauge, faces a top count of second-degree conspiracy. Badger, 18, of Medford, faces a top count of first degree robbery. Meade, 17, faces a top count of second degree conspiracy. As of now, they have not been charged in the killing and the investigation continues, authorities said.

Nassau police have also charged Milton Allen, 20, of Hempstead, and a juvenile in Midgette’s killing. Allen pleaded not guilty in that case. Allen was not named in the indictment announced Thursday.

Tierney described the Brims as a tightly organized faction of a statewide set of the Bloods gang called the New York Blood Brim Army. Johnson, he said, implemented a strict performance plan for gang members: “If they committed violence, they were promoted. If not, they were kicked out.” Low-ranking members committed shootings against rivals and “directed violence at anyone who disrespected the gang on social media or otherwise.”

A multiagency team of investigators from across Long Island, cooperating with federal agencies, began their work in early 2022, authorities said, using more than 100 search warrants into homes, vehicles and digital sources to build a case into what Tierney’s office, in a release, called “sprawling and extensive criminal conduct.”