Latest / FBI Files / 90s Gangs vs The FBI TRIPLE EPISODE The FBI Files

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90s Gangs vs The FBI TRIPLE EPISODE The FBI Files · FBI Files

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: As crack cocaine tore through Washington, D.C., a drug gang
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: fought to take control. Authorities fought back with everything they had.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: But gang members used any means to avoid prosecution. As
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the violence raged out of control, law enforcement took back
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the streets.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: In the early 1990s, Washington, D.C. became the murder capital
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: of the nation. Few were left untouched by gang violence,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: which was ignited by.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: The drug trade.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: By 1994, that violence would strike at the very heart
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: of law enforcement. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of the
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: FBI's New York office. I would fall to the FBI
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: to lead an international manhunt and bring in the leader
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: of the city's most vicious gang.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: October 26th, 1994. The nation's capital was about to become
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the backdrop to another bloody crime. Just before midnight, three
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: masked gunmen broke into a home in the northwest section
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of the city. Get up!
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Get up!
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: Get up!
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Matt!
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: They targeted Gerald Gaither, demanding his cash and drugs. He
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: turned over what little money he had in his pockets.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: The owner of the home, William Ragland, was accosted while
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: working in his basement. Upstairs, one of the gunmen discovered
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Nancy Hatchet and Darlene Hatchet, Ragland's daughter and granddaughter. Get
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: out there, get to the living room, go. To convince
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Gaither to cooperate, the gunmen terrorized each of the residents.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: Get out, get out.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: The women were ordered to lie face down on the floor.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: Hands out.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Tell us what's going on, man. Tell us where the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: money is.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Where is it? Where is it?
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Gaither denied having more cash or drugs.
• 2:48
  Speaker 5: Put your hands down now.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: One of the gunmen turned his. 22 caliber handgun towards Reitman.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: The 89-year-old retired federal worker died instantly. Andre Madison, another resident,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: was hustled into the living room. One of the three
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: attackers noticed his gold necklace and ripped it from his neck.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: The one man was dead. Gaither still refused to.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Cooperate.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Enraged, one of the gunmen began shooting the residents. The
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: robbery attempt collapsed into murder. The trio quickly fled the house.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: One of the attackers vomited near the back door. Nancy
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Hatchet called 911. Officers from DC's Metropolitan Police Department quickly
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: arrived at the house, located in a known drug area. Inside,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: three people were dead. William Ragland, his granddaughter, Darlene Hatchet,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: and Gerald Gaither. Pictures were taken of each body and
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: shell casings were collected. Outside, police discovered vomit near the door.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Nancy Hatchet and Andre Madison, the only survivors, tried to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: help police develop suspects. But the attackers were masked, making
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: identification difficult. For Metropolitan Homicide Detective Anthony Brigadini, A check
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: on victim Gerald Gaither suggested a possible motive.
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: The main victim of the triple was a drug dealer
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: in the 1st and Kennedy Street area. The guy drove
• 5:19
  Speaker 6: flashy cars, had nice clothes, had a lot of money.
• 5:22
  Speaker 6: When the drug dealer was unable to give them enough
• 5:26
  Speaker 6: money and or drugs, things started to get a little harried,
• 5:30
  Speaker 6: and that's when the shootings occurred inside.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: Neighbors told police that after hearing gunshots, they saw a
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: dark colored sedan with a loud muffler leaving the area.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: An all points bulletin.
• 5:45
  Speaker 7: Was issued for the vehicle and three men inside. One
• 5:53
  Speaker 7: hour after the murders, two DC cops spotted a noisy
• 5:57
  Speaker 7: vehicle that fit the report.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Noticing three men inside the vehicle, the officers pulled over
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: the gray SUV. Police asked the men for identification. The
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: driver was identified as Benny Lee Lawson. The passengers were
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: determined to be Kobe Mowat and Jermaine Briggs. In one
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of their pants pockets, police recovered a broken gold necklace.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: But details from the murder scene were still incomplete. For
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the officers, the necklace was meaningless. After recording all of
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the men's names and addresses, the three were soon released.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: There was no evidence in the car to connect them
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: to the murders. Despite the lack of solid suspects, homicide
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: detectives believed that Gerald Gaither had been murdered by a
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: rival drug gang. By 1990, crack cocaine had hit the
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: streets in Washington, D.C. Neighborhood gangs began to emerge throughout
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the city when it became clear that there was a
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: lot of money to be made from dealing the drug.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: As more and more money flowed to the gangs, they
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: resorted to violence to protect their turf from rival drug dealers.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: By 1994, the nation's capital was averaging nearly 400 homicides
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: a year. DC police joined forces with the FBI and
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: several federal agencies to combat the drug-related violence. Most of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the murders remained unsolved. Hoping to rattle free a lead
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: in a triple murder, detectives began canvassing the neighborhood where
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the murders took place. Neighbors were too afraid to openly cooperate.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Some were willing to phone in information anonymously. One tip
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: led to Benny Lee Lawson, one of the three men
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: pulled over the night of the homicides. Investigators learned that
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: the gold necklace taken from Andre Madison matched the one
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: officers found on one of the men in Lawson's car.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: Detective Brigadini questioned Lawson.
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: Lawson's interview lasted about three or four hours, and different
• 8:48
  Speaker 6: detectives went in and spent some time with Lawson in
• 8:52
  Speaker 6: an attempt to get him to provide some sort of
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: information about his involvement in the triple murder.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: Sit down.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Look at me. Lawson repeatedly denied having any knowledge of
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the triple murder and refused to take a polygraph test. Listen.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Investigators tried to shake his story with the false threat
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: that they could put him at the murder scene through
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a DNA test of the recovered vomit. Lawson remained unswayed.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: After four hours, police had no choice but to release him.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Lawson's name was run through the crime database. He had
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: been identified by police intelligence units as a member of
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: one of DC's most violent and feared street gangs. The
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: 1st and Kennedy Street Crew, named after the city blocks
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the group lived on and controlled. Organized in 1988, the
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: crew was involved in drug dealing, theft, kidnappings, drive-by shootings,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: and murder. The men with Benny Lawson the night of
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: the murders, Kobe Mowat and Jermaine Graves, confronted him about
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the long hours he spent with the homicide detectives. They
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: believed he had snitched and told the police about the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: gang's involvement in the triple murder. Lawson was infuriated by
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: the accusation. He hated the police. He assured the two
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: that he had revealed nothing to investigators. Since no arrests
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: had been made, Graves was confident the cops had no evidence.
• 10:34
  Speaker 5: Moa was not as sure.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: He declared that he would leave the country rather than
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: be indicted for murder. Lawson vowed he would never go
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: back to prison where he once had been raped. Lawson
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: returned home that night. Being labeled a snitch was an
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: insult to his loyalty towards the crew. And for a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: gang member on the streets, it was a death sentence.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: He was committed to gaining back the respect of the crew, proving.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: That he was not a snitch.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: On November 22nd, 1994, a few days before Thanksgiving, Benny
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Lawson returned to Metropolitan Police Department headquarters. It was around 3.15 p.m.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: He was trying to locate the homicide department he had
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: visited several days earlier. He asked two teenagers for directions.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: They mistakenly led him to the cold case squad. The
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: team inside the office was made up of personnel from
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the MPD and the FBI, whose job was to breathe
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: life into the growing number of unsolved homicide investigations. Inside
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the office were FBI agents Martha Dixon Martinez, John Kufta,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Mike Miller, and Metropolitan Police Sergeant Hank Daly. The teenagers,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: who were there for a scheduled appointment, began to speak
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: with the officers. With no warning, Lawson pulled out his
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: M-11 assault handgun and started firing. The headquarters of the Washington, D.C.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: police was under attack. Repeated gunfire echoed through Washington, D.C.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: police headquarters. Detectives raced to the third floor office where
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: the shooting continued. No one knew what was going on
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: behind the locked doors of the cold case squad.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: Room.
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  Speaker 1: Open up the door!
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Come on, open up the door!
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: Across town at the FBI's Washington field office.
• 13:31
  Speaker 8: It was just a normal day like any other day.
• 13:37
  Speaker 8: and we were monitoring one of the police radios, and
• 13:39
  Speaker 8: we heard a call go out that there had been
• 13:40
  Speaker 8: a shooting at MPD headquarters.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Agents quickly determined the shooting was taking place inside the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: Cold Case office, where several FBI agents were on duty.
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  Speaker 8: And very quickly, we started to page our agents that
• 13:58
  Speaker 8: were assigned to the Cold Case Homicide Squad to try
• 14:01
  Speaker 8: to account for all of them. And as time progressed,
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: we weren't hearing back from some of the agents, and
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: we realized that we might have some agents inside there.
• 14:10
  Speaker 8: And as we listened, the calls became more serious, and
• 14:13
  Speaker 8: they were requesting assistance.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Critically wounded, Special Agent John Kufta was trapped inside the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: cold case squad office. When the shooting had stopped, he
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: could hear the shouts from officers outside the office trying
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to get in. Help was just a few feet away.
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  Speaker 9: At that point, I heard a voice tell me that
• 14:35
  Speaker 9: they couldn't get in, and I thought to myself, you know,
• 14:39
  Speaker 9: I'm not going to die in here. I thought of,
• 14:42
  Speaker 9: you know, my wife, my eight-month-old daughter at the time,
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: and I knew that if I stayed awake, if I
• 14:49
  Speaker 9: continued to breathe, if I continued to pray, and if
• 14:53
  Speaker 9: they got me to a hospital, I'd be alive.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Shot in the thigh, arm, stomach, neck, and chest. Krufta
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: managed to open the door. The detectives pulled him out.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: The only other visible person to the rescue was Metropolitan
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Police Sergeant Hank Daly. Barely clinging to life, he was
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: dragged from the room. He was rushed outside where a
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: helicopter waited to transport him to the Not knowing if
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the shooter was planning another ambush, the officers waited for
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: the SWAT team to arrive. FBI agents and SWAT teams
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: from around the capital converged on the Metropolitan Police headquarters.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Yells continued from inside the room as the SWAT team arrived.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Heavily armed, they entered the room. They first discovered FBI
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: agent Mike Miller's body. His weapon was still in its holster.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: In an adjoining room, the SWAT team discovered the body
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: of an unidentified black male. There was a gunshot wound
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: on his hip and a fatal wound to his head.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: FBI agent Martha Dixon Martinez was the final victim found.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: She had gunshot wounds in her back. Near her lay
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: the gun the shooter had likely used to kill her
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: and the others, an M11 assault weapon. Shouts for help
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: came from inside a closet.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Suspect in the closet, open the door slowly.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Not knowing if he was a suspect or an innocent bystander.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: The SWAT team apprehended one of the teens who had
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: walked in the room before the shooting began. The other
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: teenager had managed to flee the office earlier after being
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: shot in the leg. Supervisory Special Agent Mark Giuliano and
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: other agents arrived at the scene.
• 17:15
  Speaker 8: I just remember walking through the hallway and just seeing
• 17:19
  Speaker 8: the chaotic scene and the blood and just the total.
• 17:26
  Speaker 8: Realm of emotions on everybody's face from being focused on
• 17:30
  Speaker 8: the mission of trying to figure out what happened and
• 17:32
  Speaker 8: could there be other people involved.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Based on the crime scene analysis, investigators quickly reconstructed what
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: had happened inside the home. After Miller, Kufta, and Daly
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: were ambushed, Agent Dixon Martinez joined the firefight. She was
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: able to shoot the suspect in the hip before being
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: shot in the arm, dropping her gun. The attacker took
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: her 9mm handgun and shot the agent in the back
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: as she tried to crawl for cover. He then put
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Police fingerprinted the shooter. Hopefully his identity would shed light
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: on his actions. Two FBI agents were dead. Sergeant Hank
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Daly would not survive his injuries. It would be the
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: first time in eight years that more than one FBI
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: agent had been killed at a single time. It was
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: also one of the worst attacks in history on the
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: DC police. Agent Kufta would endure seven major medical operations
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: before recovery. The loss of his co-workers, Sergeant Hank Daly,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Agents Mike Miller and Martha Dixon Martinez, was devastating.
• 19:07
  Speaker 9: Martha, Mike and Hank were law enforcement heroes. They didn't
• 19:11
  Speaker 9: as much lose their lives as gave their lives for
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: a cause of justice, for a cause that they so
• 19:18
  Speaker 9: deeply believed.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Within hours, the investigation was moving forward. The fingerprints of
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the shooter had come back.
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: When the information came up about the identity of the shooter,
• 19:35
  Speaker 6: a detective had the information, came into a conference area
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: where the majority of the homicide officials and detectives were,
• 19:42
  Speaker 6: and it was announced that the shooter was Benny Lee
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: Lawson Jr.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: When homicide detective Anthony Briggs heard the news, he realized
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: his squad was the probable target of Lawson's rampage. Lawson
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: and the 1st and Kennedy street crew were the prime
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: suspects in the triple murder of William Ragland, Darlene Hatchett,
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: and Gerald Gaither. The shootings at headquarters showed just how
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: far the gangs would go to protect themselves.
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: I think that law enforcement as a whole has learned
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: that people operating gangs or crews are serious about what
• 20:22
  Speaker 6: it is that they're doing. They won't stop at any
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: cost to get their mission accomplished.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Now that federal officers have been murdered, the FBI was
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: given jurisdiction in the investigation of the crew.
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: I was detailed to work jointly with the FBI to
• 20:41
  Speaker 6: investigate the 1st and Kennedy Street crew, who at that
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: time we felt were responsible for essentially Lawson's actions here
• 20:51
  Speaker 6: at police headquarters.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: After joining the task force, Brigadini shared what he knew
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: about Benny Lawson and the crew. Special Agent John Kerr
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: was on the team. For him, Benny Lawson's connection with
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: the 1st and Kennedy Street crew raised serious questions.
• 21:11
  Speaker 11: Was this just a random act by Benny Lee Lawson,
• 21:15
  Speaker 11: or were there accomplices? Did he have any help in this?
• 21:20
  Speaker 11: Were there going to be any further attacks on agents
• 21:23
  Speaker 11: and police?
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: And.
• 21:26
  Speaker 11: So that was a reason that we opened up an
• 21:28
  Speaker 11: investigation to answer those questions.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Was this a conspiracy? Investigators obtained a search warrant that
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: night for the house Lawson had lived in.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Police, get out! Police, get out!
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: In his room, they uncovered a note written to the
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: members of the D.C. Homicide Unit who had interrogated him.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: threatening to kill them. Gang-related materials, violent rap lyrics, and
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: drawings of murders were everywhere. For investigators, the items in
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Lawson's room reflected a fixation with violence common to virtually
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: all gang members.
• 22:13
  Speaker 11: It was very obvious and disturbing that these individuals were
• 22:18
  Speaker 11: living this lifestyle.
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: This is the lifestyle that they.
• 22:23
  Speaker 11: Were a part of, this is the lifestyle that they
• 22:26
  Speaker 11: identified with, and they wanted to actually live the same
• 22:30
  Speaker 11: lifestyle as the lyrics that they were writing, the pictures
• 22:34
  Speaker 11: they were drawing, and the videos that they had.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: As the victims of the shootings were laid to rest,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: investigators were planning their strategy to ensure that these gang
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: members could never kill again. With six homicides on their hands,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: including two FBI agents and a Washington, D.C. police detective,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: a joint FBI-MPD task force began gathering information on the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: 1st and Kennedy Street. FBI agent Mark Giuliano headed up
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: the task force.
• 23:12
  Speaker 8: And our goal was to, A, investigate the crew because
• 23:15
  Speaker 8: they were a violent street gang. and B, to try
• 23:17
  Speaker 8: to determine what the motivation was of Benny Lee Lawson
• 23:21
  Speaker 8: to come into police headquarters and do what he did,
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: and to determine if there was anybody else involved at
• 23:26
  Speaker 8: either end, either in helping him get there to pull
• 23:29
  Speaker 8: off what he did or helping the crew afterwards to
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: cover up what had happened.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: In the wake of the shootings at MPD headquarters, police
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: pressure on gang members increased. The crew members reacted by
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: spending less time on the streets. Building a case against
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: them for their criminal activity would be difficult. The crew
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: was impenetrable to outsiders. Planting an undercover agent inside the
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: gang was too dangerous.
• 24:04
  Speaker 13: What we realized is that, A, we had a very
• 24:06
  Speaker 13: close crew.
• 24:07
  Speaker 8: That is, they took care of each other and watched
• 24:10
  Speaker 8: each other very closely, but They were very, very leery
• 24:13
  Speaker 8: of outsiders. They had been leery before, but they were
• 24:17
  Speaker 8: even more leery now, and that any attempts for us
• 24:20
  Speaker 8: to get somebody, an agent or a police officer on
• 24:23
  Speaker 8: the inside, was not something that we were going to
• 24:26
  Speaker 8: even attempt to do.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Instead, agents would have to gather intelligence on the crew
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: through covert surveillance. As time went on, the gang returned
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: to business as usual. The FBI was watching.
• 24:45
  Speaker 11: We had extensive surveillance coverage of the area, day and night,
• 24:51
  Speaker 11: identifying everyone that came onto the block, identifying who the
• 24:54
  Speaker 11: buyers were, what time of day, where did they go
• 24:56
  Speaker 11: when they bought, did they get into a car, did
• 24:58
  Speaker 11: they go into an alleyway, did they do it hand-to-hand
• 25:02
  Speaker 11: right there in front of you. All these things we
• 25:04
  Speaker 11: started to take notice of and document.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: Through surveillance, the leaders of the crew were soon identified.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Kobe Mowat and his second-in-command, Jermaine Graves, the two men
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: in the car with Benny Lawson the night of the
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: first Chipper homicide. On the streets, Mowat was known to
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: be violent and unpredictable.
• 25:29
  Speaker 8: The reputation of Kobe Mowat was that of fear, that
• 25:32
  Speaker 8: he would react quickly.
• 25:36
  Speaker 13: At times, he had a temper.
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: He always carried a gun and could be extremely violent
• 25:41
  Speaker 8: at times.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Looking into Kobe's past, investigators discovered he shared a common
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: history with Graves and with Benny Lawson. Their relationship developed
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: in 1990 while serving together in Washington, D.C. 's Lorton Prison,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: located in Northern Virginia. They had been arrested and convicted
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: for weapons violations while preparing for a drive-by shooting at
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: another gang. The task force members were convinced that Mowat
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: and Graves played some role in all six murders. But
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: the leaders of the 1st and Kennedy street crew continued
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to keep a low profile. Agents devised a long-term strategy
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: that would net not only Mowat and Graves, but also
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the entire gang membership. They would slowly build a conspiracy
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: case against the crew that would include the entire range
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of their criminal activities. From crack cocaine trafficking... Agents.
• 26:45
  Speaker 9: Would work themselves inside by first targeting individuals who regularly.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Purchased their drugs from the crew. This would allow them
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: to watch and record the gang committing crimes. And by
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: arresting the buyers, agents would have leverage to turn them
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: into informants.
• 27:17
  Speaker 11: We'd come into an area when we thought that they'd
• 27:19
  Speaker 11: be the most active in selling drugs. And in order
• 27:23
  Speaker 11: to identify someone and hopefully get lucky, catch someone with
• 27:26
  Speaker 11: some drugs and maybe force them to work for us
• 27:29
  Speaker 11: at some point.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Some of the buyers arrested were unwilling to cooperate at first.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: The dangerous reputations of Mowat and Graves were well known.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: But the threat of long prison sentences was powerful. The
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: FBI strategy paid off. Threatened with significant jail time. one
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: of the biggest drug suppliers to the crew decided to.
• 27:55
  Speaker 14: Become an informant.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: At the FBI's direction, he would generate conversation with crew
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: members about their illegal activities.
• 28:05
  Speaker 8: And he'd have conversations with them, and they'd like to
• 28:08
  Speaker 8: brag about what they've done. And at our direction, he
• 28:12
  Speaker 8: would bring something up, say an old drive-by shooting or
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: an old murder or something about drug dealings. and these
• 28:20
  Speaker 8: individuals would just start to talk about it. They'd talk
• 28:23
  Speaker 8: about who was involved, what happened. All of this was
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: being recorded.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Through the informant and the recordings, agents learned that Mowat, Graves,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and Lawson had killed previously. Less than three weeks before
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: breaking into William Ragland's house, they had kidnapped and murdered
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: another rival drug dealer. William Red Billy Woods was a
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: well-known dealer from a rival gang. Jermaine Graves arranged to
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: lure Woods to his mother's house. Once there, Mohawk Graves
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: and Lawson robbed him and beat him. Fearing the rival
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: gang would retaliate against the crew, They shot him three
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: times and dumped his body.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: In the river.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Agents also heard testimony from another informant that further implicated Mowat,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Graves and Lawson in the triple murder at William Ragland's house.
• 29:40
  Speaker 8: He overheard Benny, Kobe, and Jermaine Graves talking about the
• 29:47
  Speaker 8: triple homicide. And one of the things that he mentioned
• 29:51
  Speaker 8: that they were giving Benny a hard time for was
• 29:54
  Speaker 8: the fact that he threw up at the scene of
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: the triple homicide. That's something that only the homicide detectives
• 30:01
  Speaker 8: knew and that we knew and had not been released
• 30:03
  Speaker 8: to the public.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: The information was only circumstantial, but months of surveillance and
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: informant testimony gave agents enough evidence to obtain a search
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: warrant for the homes of Kobe Mowat and Jermaine Graves.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: They would strike at Jermaine Graves first. A heavily armed
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: SWAT team made their way inside his house.
• 30:26
  Speaker 8: Police, get down!
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: No one was there. Agents would not leave empty-handed.
• 30:39
  Speaker 11: We were able to locate a 9mm gun, semi-automatic pistol,
• 30:45
  Speaker 11: as well as some.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Crack cocaine, what we believe to be crack cocaine.
• 30:49
  Speaker 11: One of the members on the squad took the information
• 30:51
  Speaker 11: that we got from the gun and put together an
• 30:54
  Speaker 11: affidavit for an arrest warrant based on the fact that
• 30:57
  Speaker 11: it was a convicted felon and possession of a firearm.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: For several weeks, Graves eluded investigators. They continued surveillance, hoping
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: that he would turn up.
• 31:16
  Speaker 13: We really didn't know where he was. We had some ideas.
• 31:19
  Speaker 8: We knew he was still in the metro area, but
• 31:23
  Speaker 8: obviously he knew once we hit his house that we
• 31:25
  Speaker 8: were looking for him. and where it was on the
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: street that we were looking for him. So he was
• 31:28
  Speaker 8: keeping a very low profile. During one of our very
• 31:32
  Speaker 8: standard surveillances, I saw an individual who walked.
• 31:37
  Speaker 13: Like Jermaine Graves just from the back. I couldn't see
• 31:39
  Speaker 13: his face.
• 31:42
  Speaker 8: So I asked one of the units to drive around
• 31:45
  Speaker 8: the block and just take a look at the guy.
• 31:47
  Speaker 8: And the next thing I know, they jumped out and
• 31:50
  Speaker 8: arrested him. They knew as soon as they pulled around
• 31:53
  Speaker 8: the corner, it was him. You know, he was arrested
• 31:56
  Speaker 8: right on the street corner of 1st and Kennedy.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Just a few months after the first triple murder, Graves
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: was off the streets. Making a case against Kobe Mola
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: would prove more difficult. With the arrest of gang member
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Jermaine Graves on a weapons charge, the FBI task force
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: was one step closer to taking the 1st and Kennedy
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: crew off of the Washington, D.C.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: Streets.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Now agents were ready to serve a search warrant on
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: the home of the crew's leader, Kobe Mowat. The SWAT
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: team entered the house Kobe shared with his twin brother, Kareem.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: The two never knew what hit them. Investigators found gang-related documents,
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: drawings and writings, and a small amount of marijuana. They
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: found no guns or evidence of the murders, but that
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: was not their prime interest. The task force hunted for
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: evidence of a larger crime matter.
• 33:03
  Speaker 8: Most of the evidence we were looking for at the
• 33:07
  Speaker 8: time was a list of crew members, shirts that they
• 33:13
  Speaker 8: all wore with the logo on them, pictures, phone books,
• 33:18
  Speaker 8: things that would associate this group together.
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: The twins were arrested on drug charges and taken in
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: for booking. Kobe's time in jail was brief. Only his
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: brother Kareem's fingerprints were on the bag of pot. Kobe
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: was released and the possession charge was dropped. Agents were
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: determined to see him back behind bars.
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: You know what?
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Investigators continued developing informants from within the gang. They got
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: the break they were looking for. Facing jail time on
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: a drug charge, a member of the first and Kennedy
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: crew agreed to cooperate. Finally, investigators learned the answer to
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the question that had most plagued them. Why did Benny
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Lee Lawson go into police headquarters and kill two FBI
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: agents and an MPD sergeant?
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Jimmy.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: It started the night Kobe Mowat, Jermaine Graves, and Benny
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: Lee Lawson broke into the home of William Reitman. The
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: trio's plan had been to rob drug dealer Gerald Gaither.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Jermaine Graves became frustrated by Gaither's refusal to cooperate, and
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: he snapped, killing three of the residents. Overwhelmed Benny Lawson
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: vomited outside the home. To Mowat, it was a sign
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: of weakness. The informant continued. When Lawson was brought in
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: for questioning by investigators, Mowat was sure Lawson had snitched.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: He began to tell others in the crew that Lawson
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: was cooperating.
• 35:23
  Speaker 13: Benny hated snitches. He hated them.
• 35:25
  Speaker 8: He actually pistol-whipped one individual whom he thought was snitching
• 35:29
  Speaker 8: and probably hated him more than any other crew member.
• 35:32
  Speaker 8: So to have Kobe think that he was ratting or
• 35:37
  Speaker 8: snitching on him and to go out to 1st and
• 35:41
  Speaker 8: Kennedy Street crew and have the rest of the crew
• 35:43
  Speaker 8: look at him as a snitch, we believe was more
• 35:46
  Speaker 8: than he could handle.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: Really?
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: Really.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: For agents and investigators, it was now clear that Kobe Mowat,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: Jermaine Graves, and Benny Lawson had committed the triple homicide.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Agents took their case to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
• 36:02
  Speaker 11: Through these conversations and the cooperating witnesses, plus the information
• 36:06
  Speaker 11: that the police had from the car stop the night
• 36:10
  Speaker 11: of the triple murder, left us no doubt that they
• 36:13
  Speaker 11: had enough to get a.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Murder warrant for these guys for the triple murder. It
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: was also clear that Coby Mowat was part of the
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: reason Benny Lee Lawson murdered three investigators inside the Metropolitan
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Police Department. Agents finally felt ready to go before a
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: grand jury and present their conspiracy case against Coby Mowat.
• 36:35
  Speaker 4: And the entire crew.
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: Among the 57 charges that were handed down were indictments
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: for nearly a dozen homicides, drug trafficking, armed robbery, kidnapping,
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and racketeering. Already in custody, Graves was charged with three
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: counts of felony murder. An arrest warrant was issued for
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Kobe Mowat. Investigators returned to his house. This time, he
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: wasn't home. The closets had been emptied. The place looked
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: like it had been abandoned. In the trash, investigators found
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: a receipt for a plane ticket. It appeared that Kobe
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: had kept his promise to flee rather than go to jail.
• 37:33
  Speaker 8: And the plane ticket was for just a few days
• 37:36
  Speaker 8: before we hit the place. And the plane ticket was
• 37:38
  Speaker 8: from New York, to Moscow. And at that point, we
• 37:43
  Speaker 8: knew that Covey had most likely fled not only the area,
• 37:46
  Speaker 8: but most likely the country.
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: Mowat was one step ahead of the agents. They tried
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: to pick up his trail in Russia, but he was
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: nowhere to be found. Investigators discovered there was a flight
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: departing to Africa soon after he landed in Moscow. The
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: check of the passenger list revealed nothing.
• 38:11
  Speaker 5: There you are, sir.
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: Agents grew increasingly more frustrated. Mowat was slipping away. For
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: six months, FBI agents and Washington, D.C. police tried to
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: track fugitive Kobe Mowat. He could be hiding anywhere. An
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: international manhunt was underway.
• 38:39
  Speaker 13: We literally went months without a break.
• 38:42
  Speaker 8: We went through hundreds and hundreds of documents that we
• 38:46
  Speaker 8: had obtained during search warrants, during various parts of the investigation,
• 38:54
  Speaker 8: looking for overseas phone numbers, looking for overseas relatives, once again,
• 38:59
  Speaker 8: without a break.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: After several months, Agent John Kerr got a break. Through
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: an informant, he uncovered the name of an ex-girlfriend of Kobe's.
• 39:10
  Speaker 11: We had come up with addresses for one of the
• 39:13
  Speaker 11: addresses we came up with. We subpoenaed the toll records,
• 39:16
  Speaker 11: and sure enough, we found a collect call from Kenya
• 39:21
  Speaker 11: on one of her toll records. And this was shortly
• 39:26
  Speaker 11: after he would have arrived in Africa.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Agents brought her in for questioning. She repeatedly denied knowing
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: anything about Kobi Mowat's whereabouts. Agents confronted her about the
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: phone records. If she continued to withhold information, they would
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: serve her with a grand jury subpoena. She decided to cooperate.
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: She told investigators that Kobe had in fact called her
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: several times from Nairobi, Kenya. He had not called her recently.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: She believed he might have moved on to Tanzania. The
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: information was immediately passed on overseas. Mowat's phone call to
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: his ex-girlfriend had originated from a hotel in Nairobi. A U.S.
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Department of State regional security officer in Kenya followed the lead.
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: The hotel owner said he had no recollection of Kobi Mowat.
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Agent Giuliano received the news.
• 40:38
  Speaker 8: And it becomes very, very frustrating because, once again, we're
• 40:41
  Speaker 8: getting no new information, we're not getting a break, and
• 40:45
  Speaker 8: we know that the only tie that we have now
• 40:49
  Speaker 8: is this hotel in Nairobi, Kenya. So we go back
• 40:54
  Speaker 8: to the regional security officers and ask them to go
• 40:57
  Speaker 8: back out and re-interview the individual.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Again, the hotel owner insisted he knew nothing about Kobi Mowat.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: When shown photographs, he seemed to hesitate. The regional security
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: officer kept pressing. Finally, the owner asked for a guarantee
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: that if he gave information, Kobe would never be told.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: The regional security officer agreed to protect him. He said
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Kobe had in fact been to his hotel, but he
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: had left several months ago. He gave the security officer
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: a number that Kobe had called while at the hotel.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: The call was to the East African country of Tanzania.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: We took agents a few days to determine why the
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: hotel owner protected the first and Kennedy Street crew leader.
• 41:53
  Speaker 8: What we determined is that Kobe's mother was educated in Jamaica,
• 41:59
  Speaker 8: and during that process she had befriended several individuals who
• 42:03
  Speaker 8: ended up.
• 42:03
  Speaker 13: Going to various parts of the world.
• 42:06
  Speaker 8: She had an association with this hotel owner in Nairobi,
• 42:10
  Speaker 8: and she had made the contact to protect Kobe and
• 42:14
  Speaker 8: to help him.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: You have a nice day. Thank you. The phone number
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: in Tanzania eventually led investigators to a local college professor.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: He was a friend of Kobe Mowat's mother. The FBI
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: asked the Tanzanian National Police Department to follow the lead.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: The professor was unwilling to cooperate with the authorities. Certainly
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: not a student. the National Police began their own investigation
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: into Kobe Mowat's whereabouts in their country. As the search
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: for the gang leader intensified in Tanzania, agents and police
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: in Washington, D.C. continued to build their case against the
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: 1st and Kennedy crew. They amassed volumes of evidence through
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: surveillance and informant testimony over the previous year.
• 43:08
  Speaker 6: There were about 20 to 25 Metropolitan Police Department officers
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: and FBI special agents working on this investigation around the clock,
• 43:18
  Speaker 6: whether it was determining phone records or uncovering new murders
• 43:25
  Speaker 6: that these guys had committed over the years.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: On September 14, 1995, officers and agents executed over a
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: dozen arrest warrants. They searched for any indication of the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: gang leader's whereabouts in Africa. They found nothing. They collected
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: additional evidence of a criminal enterprise. They confiscated financial records, guns, drugs,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: and gang paraphernalia. Some of those arrested agreed to cooperate
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: in exchange for less jail time. Investigators were slowly taking
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: all of the gang members off the streets. In Tanzania,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: the search for Kobe Mowat was heating up. The National
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Police Force developed their own informants and learned that Mowat
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: had in fact been in contact with a university professor.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I don't know anything about Kobe. They returned to interview him.
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: He once more denied knowing anything about Kobe. Threatening the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: Jamaican-born professor with deportation, the Tanzanian police convinced him to reconsider. Finally,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: he admitted to helping Maud find a place to hide out.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: He offered to take the authorities there.
• 45:01
  Speaker 8: And this hut is literally out in the middle of
• 45:03
  Speaker 8: the tribes people who are living in straw huts or
• 45:06
  Speaker 8: actually just living on the ground, right amongst the wild
• 45:10
  Speaker 8: animals and amongst where they grow their crops.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: It was the last place on earth authorities would have
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: thought to look for Mowat. Unaware that the professor had
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: betrayed his location, Mowat was surprised to see the police
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: approaching his hut. He set fire to anything that could.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: Potentially identify him.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: But the police quickly moved in and doused the flames.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: While they searched for a reason to place him in custody,
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: they never told Mowat why they were there.
• 46:03
  Speaker 8: They also determined that out in the back, he's grown
• 46:06
  Speaker 8: a small amount of marijuana, or what they call bangi.
• 46:10
  Speaker 13: And in that part of the country, it's.
• 46:13
  Speaker 8: Against the law. And the penalty is 10 years in
• 46:16
  Speaker 8: prison or $ 100. So they brought him in based on
• 46:21
  Speaker 8: that premise, telling him that he was going to be
• 46:23
  Speaker 8: incarcerated for that.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Investigators in Washington received the news that Mowat was in custody.
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: But time was working against them. The Tanzanian police could
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: only hold Kobe on possession charge for a short period.
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: As a drug trafficker, Mowat had plenty of cash on
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: hand to pay the $ 100 fine. After days of diplomatic wrangling,
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: the arrangements for Mowat's extradition to the United States were finalized.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Agent Giuliano and Detective Brigadini traveled to Tanzania to take
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: him into custody. Investigators were finally face to face with
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: the man who had eluded them for over a year.
• 47:15
  Speaker 13: When he came in, Kobe looked tired and he looked
• 47:22
  Speaker 13: like he had been defeated.
• 47:24
  Speaker 8: We explained to him what the charges were, that he
• 47:27
  Speaker 8: was being removed to the United States. that he had
• 47:30
  Speaker 8: been indicted in the United States for a variety of charges,
• 47:33
  Speaker 8: including several counts of first-degree murder and racketeering.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Mowat was on his way back to the United States,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: where he and fellow gang members faced 57 indictments. Kobe
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Mowat and Jermaine Graves would be convicted on all counts.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: They were each sentenced to 35 years in a federal prison.
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: Mowat's capture in Africa allowed investigators to get the remaining
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: First and Kennedy crew members off the streets.
• 48:06
  Speaker 8: When we brought Kobe back to the United States, he
• 48:10
  Speaker 8: just had a domino effect on the rest of the
• 48:14
  Speaker 8: crew members. Eventually, every crew member pled guilty because they
• 48:21
  Speaker 8: felt and actually told us that once they saw that
• 48:24
  Speaker 8: we had found Kobe in East Africa and brought them
• 48:28
  Speaker 8: back that they felt they didn't stand a chance.
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: FBI agents and D.C. police worked tirelessly to bring justice
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: to the victims of gang violence. But this case was
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: also personal. Only after the entire gang was in jail
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: could they have a sense of closure and feel they
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: had vindicated the deaths of their friends. Sergeant Hank Daly
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: and FBI agents Mike Miller and Martha Dixon Martinez. For
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: agent John Kufta, who barely survived the attack at police headquarters,
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: the implications of this case were far-reaching.
• 49:12
  Speaker 9: When this group was locked up, I think it sent
• 49:15
  Speaker 9: a clear message to other criminal organizations out there operating
• 49:20
  Speaker 9: in the District of Columbia and in that tri-state area
• 49:23
  Speaker 9: there that the FBI and the DC police will go
• 49:28
  Speaker 9: to whatever lengths are necessary if it takes them to
• 49:30
  Speaker 9: other continents to track you down and find you and
• 49:33
  Speaker 9: bring you back to the United States to justice.
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: In Washington, D.C., A notorious drug gang threatens an entire neighborhood.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: Witnesses are intimidated or killed. Even as the police and
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: the FBI build a case against the killers, the body
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: count continues to climb. Drug sales skyrocket as a neighborhood
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: becomes a virtual war zone. Now the FBI must find
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the key to destroying a deadly gang known throughout the
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: city as the K Street Crew.
• 50:36
  Speaker 15: In the 1990s, the war on drugs was in full swing.
• 50:40
  Speaker 15: The front lines were often America's inner cities, where gangs
• 50:44
  Speaker 15: used violence and murder to rule their empires. I'm Jim Kallstrom,
• 50:48
  Speaker 15: former head of the FBI's New York office. When gang
• 50:52
  Speaker 15: violence exploded in Washington, D.C., the Metro Police and the
• 50:56
  Speaker 15: FBI fought back. Using high-tech surveillance and tough new laws,
• 51:00
  Speaker 15: they set out to destroy the gangs from the inside out.
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: Washington, D.C. In this city of monuments and museums lies
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: the heart of American justice, the Supreme Court, the Department
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But even our
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: nation's capital is not immune to crime. March 22nd, 1991.
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: 20-year-old Wendy York returns home after running errands.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: Teresa!
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: She shares an apartment with her cousins, Tarita and Teresa Lucas.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: Teresa is in the living room, lying on the couch.
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: Her face is covered with blood.
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: Oh, my God!
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: Wendy runs from the apartment and calls 911. An emergency
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: dispatcher directs units to the scene. DC Metro Police arrive
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: at the apartment within minutes. Teresa Lucas has been shot
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: through the head. In a back bedroom, they find another
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: body and a child. The second victim is Teresa's sister, Terita.
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: She's also been shot in the head. Her child is unharmed.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Police discover another baby, terrified but also unharmed. It's Teresa's child.
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: It seems both children have been alone with the bodies
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: for hours. A short time later, the victim's mother arrives
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: at the apartment. Renee Brown finds the building surrounded by police.
• 53:18
  Speaker 10: My mind was racing, and I was trying to get in.
• 53:21
  Speaker 10: The police were holding me back. They said, you can't
• 53:23
  Speaker 10: get in. I said, this is my house. I have
• 53:25
  Speaker 10: to go in. That was the most horrific day of
• 53:29
  Speaker 10: my life. I will never forget it.
• 53:33
  Speaker 5: They were very devoted and dedicated mothers.
• 53:36
  Speaker 12: They loved their kids, and.
• 53:38
  Speaker 14: and they didn't deserve to die.
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: Crime scene investigators process the apartment. They find no signs
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: of forced entry. Nothing in the apartment appears to be disturbed.
• 53:51
  Speaker 1: No valuables have been taken. There is nothing that suggests
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: a motive for the brutal slaying. Detectives suspect the victims
• 54:01
  Speaker 1: knew their killer.
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: Nothing in the bathroom there?
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: Detectives ask Renee Brown to check the apartment. The grieving
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: mother is willing to do anything she can to help.
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: Renee notices something missing from Teresa's bedroom.
• 54:24
  Speaker 10: The first thing I noticed was that a poster-sized picture
• 54:27
  Speaker 10: that was there the previous night had disappeared from off
• 54:31
  Speaker 10: the wall.
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: A frame is found, but a photo of Teresa's boyfriend,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: Sam Carson, is gone.
• 54:40
  Speaker 10: And I told the detective then, I said, I wonder
• 54:43
  Speaker 10: where that picture is? And we looked in the trash
• 54:48
  Speaker 10: in the back, and it was nowhere in the trash.
• 54:51
  Speaker 14: So I said, whoever has that picture is the murderer.
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: Police contact Sam Carson to ask him a few questions.
• 55:01
  Speaker 12: How you doing?
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: He denies being in the apartment the night the two
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: women were murdered.
• 55:05
  Speaker 12: Do you know that your girlfriend was killed last night?
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: Although Carson is a likely suspect, police have no physical
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: evidence to tie him to the murders. Detectives interview people
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: in the neighborhood. Although gunshots were fired in the Lucas apartment,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: neighbors claim they heard nothing.
• 55:31
  Speaker 6: Two young women have died.
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: And yet nobody is willing to talk about it. The
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: double homicide catches the attention of law enforcement across the district,
• 55:48
  Speaker 1: including the FBI. Special Agent Vince Lissy is shocked by
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: the brutality of the crime. Agent Lissy often works undercover
• 56:00
  Speaker 1: and must protect his identity.
• 56:02
  Speaker 12: It was horrific. The police had very few leads to
• 56:07
  Speaker 12: go on. They struggled and struggled with the investigation for
• 56:10
  Speaker 12: some time, but there were no real witnesses to it.
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: Without a witness, police cannot identify a suspect. Without a motive,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: they cannot catch the Lucas girls' killer. And without evidence,
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the double homicide will become a statistic. Yet another unsolved
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: murder in a city plagued with violence. The epicenter of
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: that violence is Greenleaf Gardens, a housing project on K Street.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: The drug trade has reduced the neighborhood to chaos, according
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: to Detective Steve Kirshner.
• 56:50
  Speaker 16: Crack cocaine hit this city hard in 85, 86. Along
• 56:54
  Speaker 16: with that came a lot of violence. The homicide rate
• 56:57
  Speaker 16: went sky high. I believe it started out mostly from
• 57:01
  Speaker 16: jealousy of who was making the most money. There were kidnappings, assaults.
• 57:05
  Speaker 16: It just led to a very violent area.
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: Buyers, many of them from the suburbs, made the dealers
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: on K Street rich. The area provided few economic opportunities,
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: so the lure of easy money proved a powerful recruiting tool.
• 57:25
  Speaker 12: It was a huge money-maker forum, and it was pretty
• 57:29
  Speaker 12: hard to tell a 14- or 15-year-old kid Hey listen,
• 57:33
  Speaker 12: go to school, do all the right things. Whenever they
• 57:35
  Speaker 12: can go out on the street, sell crack and make $ 1, 000
• 57:38
  Speaker 12: a day. They could buy all the things that they
• 57:42
  Speaker 12: didn't have before because they live in an impoverished home.
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: With millions of dollars in easy profits at stake, competition
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: between dealers grew fierce. Streets became borders as gangs battled
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: over sales turf. The neighborhood was a powder keg, according
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: to Metro homicide detective Tony Brigadini.
• 58:13
  Speaker 6: The area was deadly.
• 58:17
  Speaker 14: Numbers that we have compiled over the years of the.
• 58:20
  Speaker 6: Investigation show that this was probably one of the most
• 58:23
  Speaker 6: deadly areas in the District of Columbia. It's very close
• 58:29
  Speaker 6: to some of the government buildings in Southwest Washington, which
• 58:34
  Speaker 6: was interesting in that there's an incredible amount of crime
• 58:38
  Speaker 6: going on in a small area so close to a
• 58:41
  Speaker 6: downtown business district.
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: The FBI and DC Metro Police formed the Safe Streets
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: Task Force. Their job is to clean up a neighborhood
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: that has become a war zone. Agents canvassed the streets,
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: looking for information on the gangs. Residents are too afraid
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: to talk or even be seen speaking with investigators.
• 59:18
  Speaker 12: If you walk up to somebody's door and you knock
• 59:21
  Speaker 12: on their door and ask to speak to them, in
• 59:23
  Speaker 12: about three minutes everybody in that neighborhood is going to
• 59:26
  Speaker 12: know that the police are there.
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: Frustrated by the lack of cooperation, agents try a different approach.
• 59:34
  Speaker 12: Sometimes we follow people to work. We try to get
• 59:39
  Speaker 12: them away from a neighborhood. We try to do whatever
• 59:42
  Speaker 12: we can so that the people in the neighborhood don't
• 59:44
  Speaker 12: know their witnesses.
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: Slowly, the residents open up. They talk about drug dealers
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: who have taken over the neighborhood the K Street Crew.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: The gang is led by Vincent Hill, a ruthless sociopath
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: who seems to thrive on violence.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 12: If somebody came up and irritated him for any reason whatsoever,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 12: he had no problem grabbing a baseball bat, a hammer,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 12: anything he could, and hit them with it.
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: Hill's money and his brutality make him the most powerful
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: man in the neighborhood according to Metro detective Neil Trugman.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 5: He compared himself to a big-time mob figure.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: There was no fear. According to FBI sources, Vincent Hill
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: runs the K Street crew with an iron fist. Still,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: gang members respect him.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 12: Vincent Hill had a reputation for being a bully, but
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 12: at the same time, Others looked up to him because
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 12: they saw that he had money, he had nice clothes,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 12: he had fancy cars. While he's manipulating them into selling drugs,
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 12: they would see him beat somebody up for not giving
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 12: him enough money. So all of these things kind of
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 12: led the others to look to him as somebody that
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 12: you didn't want to mess with, you didn't want to challenge,
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 12: but at the same time, he was a way that
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 12: they could make money.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: The distribution of crack cocaine carries severe penalties. A conviction
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: could get Vincent Hill and his crew off the streets permanently.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Agents launch an investigation into the gang's crack dealing, but
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: Hill's group is already one step ahead. Before the FBI
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: can bust the K Street crew on cocaine charges, the
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: gang suddenly shifts to selling marijuana.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 16: They realized When they were selling crack cocaine, you're looking
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 16: at stiff time.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 12: Selling marijuana was a misdemeanor.
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 16: More than likely you wouldn't get any time for it.
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: The demand is huge. Buyers pour in from the suburbs.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: The gang maintains its profits, minimizing the risk of jail time.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 12: It just took off like a rocket. Everybody was making money.
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 12: You know, people were... making $ 3, 000, $ 4, 000, $ 5, 000 a day
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 12: just by selling marijuana.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: Swarded by the gang's move, the task force regroups as
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: the dealers grow even bolder.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 11: I would drive by in unmarked cars, and they would
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 11: hold bags of marijuana up, three for 20, three for 20.
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 6: And then when.
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 12: They finally got close enough to realize I was a cop,
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 12: they would run.
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: The dealers simply abandon their stashes until the cops leave.
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: Minutes later, the dealers return to the exact same spot
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: with a new stash and set up shop again. As
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: business expands, the violence escalates, sometimes involving innocent victims. On
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: August 29th, 1992, Travis Ross and two friends are mistaken
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: for rival drug dealers. Ross is killed instantly. Both of
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: his friends are critically wounded. Police interview the survivors. They
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: say they have no idea who shot them or why.
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Their reluctance to answer questions is understandable. Police believe the
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: K Street crew has already murdered a dozen people who
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: cooperated with authorities. What they don't know is how the
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: gang is able to identify these potential witnesses. In 1995,
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: Bruce Spencer is shot five times at point blank range
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 1: by a K Street crew member. Somehow he survives. He
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: is willing to identify the man who shot him. The
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: task force immediately places Spencer in protective custody. He's registered
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: at a DC hospital under the name John Doe. While
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Spencer recuperates, Agent Lissy and other investigators scour Greenleaf Gardens
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: looking for the men who tried to kill him. On
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: K Street, Agent Lissy and Detective Trugman find themselves face
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: to face with Vincent Hill, the gang's notorious leader.
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 12: He said, look, all your witnesses are gonna die, every one.
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 12: Even your buddy who's in the hospital under the name
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 12: John Doe, in room, and he told me exactly what
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 12: room it was. And I shook my head as if
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 12: I didn't know what he was talking about, but I
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 12: knew exactly what he.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: Was talking about.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 12: They wanted to let us know that it was their
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 12: business to locate witnesses and silence them.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: Investigators are even more determined to protect their witness. But
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 1: word of Hill's threat reaches Spencer. Fearing for his life,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: the witness refuses to help investigators. The task force is frustrated,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: having lost another battle in their war against the K
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: Street crew. In the 1990s, Greenleaf Gardens in the southwest
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: section of Washington, D.C., is a neighborhood under siege. A
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: gang calling itself the K Street crew has claimed the
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: housing project as its base of operations and turned it
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: into a killing zone. Metro police, working closely with the FBI,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: struggle to link the gang to a rash of killings.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Investigators know it will take more than individual murder convictions
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: to stop the widespread violence. They need a strategy that
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: will take down the entire gang. The Joint Task Force
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: decides to use RICO, a federal racketeering statute, that will
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: allow them to prosecute the K Street crew as a
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 1: single corrupt organization that sells drugs and commits murder to
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: protect their interests. Homicide detectives reexamine dozens of cold cases,
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 1: cases that were once attributed to the random violence of
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: the projects. They search for anything that will link the
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: K Street crew to murder, according to Detective Tony Brigadini.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 6: Some of the cases that we were investigating were eight
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 6: years old, ten years old. We would have to go
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 6: back and research case jackets, try to find evidence that
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 6: had been collected eight or ten years earlier, try to
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 6: locate crime scene photographs, things of that nature.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 12: Yeah, there it is. See this car? Is that the
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 12: same car?
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 6: So in trying to build a strong case, we were
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 6: dealing with very little information.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, agents launch a covert surveillance operation to
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: gather evidence on the gang's growing drug business. Special Agent
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: Vince Lissy.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 12: We wanted to show the conspiratorial nature of these guys,
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 12: how they operated on the street, how they took turns
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 12: selling drugs, who supplied who. And we thought that if
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 12: we could have undercovers introduced to the group, that we
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 12: could accomplish this.
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: FBI agents set up a stakeout in an apartment overlooking
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: K Street. The landlord offers it to them free of charge.
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: Like most of the residents of Greenleaf Gardens, he's sick
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: of the drugs and the violence.
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 12: We got some camera equipment, video and still photos. And
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 12: we would sit up there and watch them and try
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 12: to get the people on K Street's patterns down. We
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 12: would see Vincent Hill out there and see how he operated.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: Investigators watch the area for weeks. Once they've established the
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: gang's patterns, they develop a plan. Most of the drug
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: transactions on K Street are conducted with buyers in cars.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: To get closer to the dealers, they'll need a vehicle.
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 12: We decided the best approach was to use a pickup truck.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 12: We got the oldest, dirtiest pickup truck the FBI had.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 12: We bought some toolboxes and put toolboxes on the back
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 12: of the truck to make it look like a construction truck.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: The truck is rigged with surveillance cameras and microphones. Two
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: Metro investigators, Joe Abdallah and Jim Scheider, are recruited from
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: another precinct. As outsiders, they will not be recognized by
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: gang members. They will pose as construction workers to make
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: drug buys. Metro investigator Joe Abdallah.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 14: So me and Jimmy had a pre-range.
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 17: If I was in any trouble where I felt my
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 17: safety was in jeopardy, I was gonna run for that truck.
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 17: And depending on the situation, Jimmy was gonna take off
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 17: with me jumping in the back of that truck, or
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 17: he would get out with his firearm.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: The main target of the surveillance operation is Vincent Hill.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: The undercover officers expect they will have to make several
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 1: buys before they can make contact with the gang leader.
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 1: Five cars carrying two-man teams form a perimeter around the neighborhood.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: They stand by on their radios, awaiting Lissy's orders.
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 12: We had all this in place. We had the car
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 12: situated throughout the neighborhood. And we said, okay, let's go,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 12: let's try it.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: As the officers attempt their first undercover buy, Jim Scheider
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: knows he is heading into dangerous territory.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 13: As soon as we turned a corner, my heart started racing.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 13: We knew that there was no turning back at that point.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: Abdallah and Scheider look for a dealer, any dealer, to
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: buy from. Then on a street corner, they spot Vincent
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: Hill flanked by his lieutenants. The K Street crew is
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: out in force. What y'all need?
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 3: I got a couple bags.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: Abdallah doesn't think twice. He gets out of the truck.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 17: And I'd asked if I could get two bags for $ 40,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 17: which meant two bags of marijuana, which were $ 50, but
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 17: if I could, I'd get them for $ 40 apiece. An
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 17: individual to my left side ran to go get them
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 17: from a stash, which was on a fence line.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 14: And Vincent Hill said, no, you'll take two for $ 50.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 14: I put the money down, and then I walked away.
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: The surveillance team documents the entire transaction. They now have
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: the leader of the K Street crew on videotape, personally
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: selling marijuana to undercover officers.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 12: Joe walked in Vincent Hill the first time and we said, wow,
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 12: this is too easy. Within 30 seconds, the deal was done.
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 12: Jim and Joe rolled back to the office and we
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 12: were just amazed.
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: The task force has been prepared to wait weeks, even months,
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: to make contact with Hill. But it happened in less
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: than a minute. The FBI presses their advantage. Over the
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: next six months, they continue to buy marijuana directly from Hill,
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: gradually increasing the quantity. Each time, the sale is carefully photographed.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: He was there.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 12: He never touched a drug.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: Through the undercover buys, investigators discover that Hill controls everything
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: that happens on the block. This becomes clear when Abdallah
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: and Scheider try to make a purchase from someone other
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: than Hill.
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 14: And we were getting ready to make the purchase, and
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 14: there was someone hollering down the street.
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 17: When we looked back, it was Vincent Hill. We went
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 17: back down into the block, met with Vincent Hill and
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 17: bought from him.
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 14: And I think he had that kind of power in
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 14: that block.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: For months, the buys go on like clockwork. Abdallah is
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: doing more than making purchases. He's building a relationship. Slowly,
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: he gains Hill's trust and tries to get information.
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 14: I try to get any conversations I could from him.
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 17: And there were times when I'd try and draw a
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 17: conversation from him where he would say, look, If the
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 17: police come in the block, I have a place to
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 17: run to, you don't.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 14: So tell me what you need, let's.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: Get it over with.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 17: And there were also times when I had a conversation
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 17: with him about setting up weight purchases, or more than
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 17: the $ 20 bag, what we would call wholesale quantities, like
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 17: quarter pounds.
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: Abdallah begins buying in bulk, moving from ounces to pounds.
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: He tells Hill he is selling marijuana at the construction
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: site where he works.
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 17: There were occasions when he would actually front me drugs,
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 17: which would mean he'd give them to me for free
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 17: for payment at a later date.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 14: We had that kind of trust.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 17: And he even gave me good advice on when buying
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 17: the weight. He would supply me with the smaller $ 20 bags.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 17: He gave me packages of those at some points, and
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 17: he would tell me how to juggle it or break
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 17: it down and sell it in the quantities to my friends.
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 14: And he gave me helpful hints on how to do that.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: For six months, the operation runs smoothly. Then, a routine
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: bye puts everyone on guard.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 17: At one point when I made a bye from him,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 17: I got back into the truck and Jimmy was driving
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 17: and I was in the passenger seat and Jimmy said, hey,
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 17: he's waving at you.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 14: And he was motioning like to roll the window down.
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 17: So I rolled the window down and he said, hey, look,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 17: these guys over here, they're saying that your buddy's a
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 17: police officer.
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 14: He said, I know you're okay, but he said, those
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 14: guys over there will kill you.
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 17: And it threw us off a little bit, and then
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 17: when we started to leave, the guys that he was
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 17: pointing to had like hoods over their faces and put
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 17: their heads away from us.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: It does not appear to Abdallah and Scheider that Hill
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: suspects they are cops. So they continue the operation. A
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: week later, the two detectives pull into K Street. Vincent
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: Hill is there.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 17: Hill was cold to me, didn't want anything to do
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 17: with me. He said he didn't know where they sold marijuana,
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 17: didn't know what I was talking about. And it was
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 17: very confusing, because even when he was angry and sold,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 17: he was just in a hurry.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 14: He said, what do you need? Hurry up and get
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 14: out of here. But on this day, he's like, I
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 14: don't have anything. I don't know what you're talking about.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: You can go somewhere else. Hill sends them to another
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: dealer down the block. That night, Abdallah meets the dealer
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: in an abandoned house. The officer prepares for a confrontation.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 17: The gentleman walked into a vacant house, called me in.
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 17: The gentleman tried to give me, like, a sandwich baggie
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 17: full of lawnmower clippings.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 14: It wasn't real marijuana. So it was that point, we
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 14: knew something was wrong.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: Abdallah knows their cover is blown. With backup cars at
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: least two minutes away, he slowly talks his way out
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: of the building. The undercover operation is over. After six
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: months of drug buys, the task force still does not
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: have enough evidence to put Vincent Hill and his gang
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: in prison once and for all.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 12: Had we charged him with the drug conspiracy alone, it
• 1:17:32
  Speaker 12: might have gotten him 10 years, maybe five years. And
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 12: what's even worse, they wouldn't have been held accountable for
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 12: all the violent crimes they committed. So we still needed
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 12: to investigate the murders and the robberies and the kidnappings
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 12: and all the violent crimes that were associated with that group.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: Investigators still have a lot of work to do. In
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: the meantime, the streets rage with violence. In Washington, D.C.,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: a lengthy undercover operation has begun to produce results. Investigators
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: have videotaped the infamous K Street crew selling drugs. But now,
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: they must find evidence of the gang's more violent activities.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: In 1995, a brave young woman steps forward. Chrissy Gladden
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: is 19 years old. As a single mother, she is
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: worried about her neighborhood. Chrissy tells police that Jerome Martin
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: and Antonio Knight are responsible for a drive-by shooting. She
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: overheard Martin talking about it. Although she doesn't know the
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: victim's name, her description of the crime leads investigators to
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: an unsolved murder. Six months earlier, Travis Ross had been
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: killed in a drive-by shooting near K-State. Two of his
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: friends were critically wounded. Chrissy wants to testify against the gang.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: She knows they are the reason her neighborhood is so dangerous. Still,
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: she's afraid. She tells investigators that if she speaks out
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: against the K Street crew, they will kill her. Chrissy
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: Gladden and two other women finally agree to testify, but
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: only if the FBI places them in the Witness Protection Program.
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Vince Lissy.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 12: We finally convinced Chrissy as well as these other female
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 12: witnesses that we would work with them. We would try
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 12: to keep them safe and make sure nothing happened to them.
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 12: We stressed upon them not to tell people where they lived,
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 12: not to take people to their new apartments.
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: Chrissy's cooperation pays off. Crew members Jerome Martin and Antonio
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: Knight are indicted for murder.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 6: Pull the slide up to your bicep.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: Lissy believes they have enough evidence to get a conviction.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: Even though one witness is recanted, two others, including Chrissy,
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: are still willing to testify.
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 13: It's not a big deal.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 12: The week before the trial of Jerome Martin, we're constantly
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 12: re-interviewing witnesses, talking to them, getting them ready to testify.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 12: We want them to know what questions they're going to
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 12: be asked. if they take the stand to testify.
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: The week before, we.
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 12: Had Christy in the U.S. Attorney's Office.
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 5: We got her ready.
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 12: She pretty much knew what was going to be expected
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 12: of her. She wasn't an eyewitness to the murder, but
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 12: she did fill in certain gaps.
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: Four days before the start of the murder trial, Vince
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: Lissy receives a call from one of the witnesses.
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 12: She was frantic, screaming, crying, telling me, They killed Chrissy,
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 12: they killed Chrissy, Chrissy's dead. And I couldn't believe it.
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 12: And then whenever I realized what she was talking about,
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 12: it was like somebody punched me in the stomach.
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: Agent Lissy drives over to the Southwest District. At the
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 1: crime scene, Metro Police tell him what happened.
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 16: Get that mark right away.
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: According to witnesses, Chrissy attended a party on 37th Street
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: at the home of Antonio Knight's girlfriend. As she left
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: the party, two gunmen appeared and opened fire. By the
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: time police arrived, Chrissy was already dead. Not surprisingly, Investigators
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: are unable to find a single witness willing to identify
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: Chrissy's killers. The message from the K Street crew is clear.
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: Talking to the police is a death sentence.
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 12: Chrissy thought that everything was fine. She trusted her friends.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 12: She trusted the people in that neighborhood. Thought she could
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 12: go back there and nothing was going to happen. That
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 12: was probably the worst I've ever felt in this job.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 12: It's hard. It's hard to keep going sometimes when that happens.
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 1: Still, the task force pursues their case against Jerome Martin
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 1: and Antonio Knight. The trial is a disaster.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 12: The case had lingered in the system so long in D.C.,
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 12: we said, we got to go. And we went forward
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 12: with it, and we did the best we could. Some
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 12: witnesses were just physically unable to testify. They were just distraught. But,
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 12: you know, we went forward and we lost.
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: Jerome Martin and Antonio Knight are acquitted due to lack
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: of evidence. To the K Street crew, witnesses like Chrissy
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: Gladden are a minor inconvenience.
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 12: It was really something to see these guys go free.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 12: And at that point, they won the battle.
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 5: They were happy. They won the battle.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 12: And I told myself, you can't sit back and let
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 12: them continue to win these battles.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: Chrissy Gladden's death and the acquittal of Martin and Knight
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: are major blows to the investigation. The task force refuses
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: to give up. Somehow, they will find a way to
• 1:23:49
  Speaker 1: bring the K Street crew to justice. In Washington, DC,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: the K Street crew is terrorizing a neighborhood with drugs
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 1: and violence. Investigators spent months working with 19-year-old witness Chrissy Glatton,
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: who agreed to testify against them. On October 5th, she
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 1: was gunned down outside a party. Even without witnesses, Detective
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: Steve Kirshner is determined to find her killers.
• 1:24:23
  Speaker 16: We stayed on it, trying to find a break in
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 16: that case. We did everything we could. We printed up flyers,
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 16: offered a reward. It really crushed the investigators on the case,
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 16: especially Vince.
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: It's horrible.
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 12: It's just, you know, part of you says, what more
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 12: can I do? That's it. You want to wave the
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 12: white flag. But the other part of you says, wait
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 12: a minute. I'm not going to give up. I'm not
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 12: going to give in to their ways of justice. It's
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 12: not the way it's supposed to be.
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: Less than a month later, the FBI and DC police
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: get an unexpected break in the case. Robert Butchie Smith,
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: a senior K Street crew member, is arrested for drug dealing.
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: In an effort to get Smith to talk about the gang,
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: the FBI tells him he faces federal racketeering charges. They're
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 1: building a RICO case that will tie the gang's drug
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: business to a series of murders. The tactic works. Smith
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: finally agrees to talk. Smith reveals that the gang uses
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: private investigators to identify people willing to testify against them.
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: They also use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: court documents to target potential witnesses. Smith gives investigators leads
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: on several unsolved kidnapping, shootings, and murders, according to Metro
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: detective Tony Brigadini.
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 6: He had very specific, protected information of the crimes and
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 6: the business dealings that the members of the K Street
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 6: crew participated in.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: Smith specifically mentions a triple homicide that his nephew, William
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: Sweeney told him about. Sweeney, along with Sam Carson and
• 1:26:31
  Speaker 1: James Montgomery, are fellow members of the K Street crew.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: Smith said Sweeney and Carson were in Las Vegas when
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: Ryan Pierce, another drug dealer, won big at the tables.
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: The two men decided to rob Pierce when he returned
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: to D.C. On November 17th, 1996, Sweeney, Carson, and James
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: Montgomery waited outside his home. Pierce arrived late that night,
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: along with three friends. The K Street crew made their move.
• 1:27:16
  Speaker 3: What's up, man?
• 1:27:18
  Speaker 14: What's this, man? Hey, where your money at?
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: Where my money at?
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 4: Get over here.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: Get over here.
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: Pierce told the gunman he had already put his winnings
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: in the bank. There was no cash in the house.
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: Sweeney killed both men. One woman tried to flee, but
• 1:27:38
  Speaker 1: was shot to death. Another woman managed to hide until
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: the killers left. According to Butchie Smith, The K Street
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: crew usually kills people in response to a threat. But
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: Pierce's murder was different. This time, it was all about greed.
• 1:28:05
  Speaker 1: Investigators hope that Smith's inside information is the break they
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 1: need to finally bring down the gang.
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 12: At that point, then we knew, okay, now we can
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 12: start to get the framework of an indictment ready so
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 12: that we could go and start to prepare charges against
• 1:28:22
  Speaker 12: these guys further. other than the drugs.
• 1:28:26
  Speaker 1: Smith agrees to become an FBI informant in exchange for
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 1: a reduced sentence. It's a risky decision. If anyone finds
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: out he's talking to a thief, Vincent Hill will have
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: him killed. Technicians analyze a single fingerprint found on a
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: screen door at the murder scene. It matches Sweeney's prints,
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: corroborating Butchie's story.
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 12: What also helped us was we got William Sweeney's cellular
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 12: telephone records. And some of the people working the case
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 12: began to go and investigate that. And they contacted the
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 12: cell phone company and found out that the cell phone
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 12: was used near the scene of the triple murder at
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 12: the time of the murder.
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: Investigators moved quickly to neutralize Sweeney. In April 1997, he
• 1:29:28
  Speaker 1: is arrested on unrelated charges. While awaiting trial in jail,
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: Sweeney receives a copy of his own arrest warrant from
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: his attorney. An unnamed source is listed as an informant
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: against him. Two months later, just when it looks like
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: the task force is about to put an end to
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: the gang's operation, Robert Butchie Smith is gunned down in
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: broad daylight. The FBI informant has been shot a total
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: of 13 times, mostly in the head.
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 12: When Butchie got killed, it brought back all these feelings
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 12: and the memories and, you know, it's hard. It's hard
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 12: to keep going sometimes when that happens. Much like Chrissy's murder,
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 12: there were no leads There were, although many people were
• 1:30:27
  Speaker 12: out on the street and saw it that day, nobody
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 12: would come forward. Nobody talked.
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: Butchie Smith's murder threatens to unravel the case against the
• 1:30:36
  Speaker 1: K Street crew. Investigators have lost their only informant. The
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: brutal killing scares away other potential witnesses.
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 12: After Butchie's murder, we sat around looking at each other like,
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 12: what do we do now? Where do we go from here?
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 12: It really took a lot of the wind out of
• 1:30:58
  Speaker 12: our sail. We had to figure out how we can
• 1:31:01
  Speaker 12: continue with the investigation. Where were we going to go?
• 1:31:04
  Speaker 12: We thought, okay, we can follow up with the leads
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 12: Butchie gave us, but still we needed somebody on the inside,
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 12: and we no longer had Butchie to give it to us.
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 5: We had to.
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 12: Gather around and tell ourselves, we can't let this get
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 12: us down. We can't stop.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: In 1997, the FBI's case against the notorious K Street
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: crew was in trouble. The only informant had been murdered,
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: gunned down in cold blood. Other potential witnesses are terrified
• 1:31:41
  Speaker 1: they'll meet the same fate. Before he was killed, FBI
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: informant Butchie Smith told investigators, that James Montgomery was one
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: of the men responsible for a triple homicide. Montgomery is
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: arrested and brought in for questioning. Special Agent Vince Lissy
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: pressures the suspect to talk about the triple homicide and
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 1: the rest of the gang's crimes. Montgomery is already facing
• 1:32:15
  Speaker 1: a long prison term for the murders. In the end,
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 1: he decides to cooperate. Montgomery admits his role in the
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: triple homicide. He also confesses to seven murders, including that
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: of cooperating witness Chrissy Gladden. Lissy presses for more leads
• 1:32:40
  Speaker 1: on crimes committed by the gang. Montgomery reveals that crew
• 1:32:47
  Speaker 1: member Sam Carson killed informant Butchie Smith. Then he drops
• 1:32:54
  Speaker 1: a bombshell.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 12: He told me, do you remember when the two girls
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 12: got killed? And I asked him, which two girls? And
• 1:33:03
  Speaker 12: he said, the ones back in the early 90s. I
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 12: knew exactly what he meant.
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: Montgomery is referring to the unsolved murders of Teresa and
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: Tarita Lucas.
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 12: And he began to tell me about it, and I
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 12: just couldn't believe it.
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 4: What do you want, Sam?
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 1: I just want to come in and talk to you
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 1: for one.
• 1:33:18
  Speaker 3: Or two minutes.
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: According to Montgomery, Sam Carson had stashed a bag of
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: guns at the home of his girlfriend, Teresa Lucas. When
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: he asked her to return the guns, Teresa claimed she
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: didn't have them. She didn't want them around her children,
• 1:33:33
  Speaker 1: so she threw them away.
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 12: Can I use your bag for a.
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 4: Second, please?
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 1: Carson was furious. he decided to confront Teresa one final time.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: Carson hid his handgun in the bathroom. He tried to
• 1:34:01
  Speaker 1: calm Teresa's fears by showing her he was unarmed.
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 12: You know what this.
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 3: Is about.
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: I want my guns, Teresa.
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 12: He began again to ask her, where's my gun?
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 4: I need my gun.
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 7: Where did you put him?
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 12: And she gave him an answer that wasn't satisfactory. He
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 12: went back to the bathroom, retrieved his gun, and killed her.
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 12: Sam walked into the bedroom, And as Tarita was waking
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 12: up and starting to sit up in bed, he shot
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 12: and killed her.
• 1:34:54
  Speaker 1: According to Montgomery, Carson got rid of any evidence that
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: linked him to the crime scene.
• 1:35:01
  Speaker 12: He took his time. When he was satisfied that he
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 12: had removed any photos, wiped all his fingerprints, He walked
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 12: from the apartment, got in the car, and left.
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: Investigators ask Montgomery how the crew had discovered the identities
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 1: of two undercover police officers, Joe Abdallah and Jim Scheider.
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 1: Montgomery admits that someone from the other side of town
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 1: recognized them as law enforcement and told Vincent Hill.
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 3: Wow, that was just.
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: Although Hill didn't believe it at first, he soon became suspicious,
• 1:35:43
  Speaker 1: according to investigator Joe Abdallah.
• 1:35:48
  Speaker 17: On a subsequent buy we made after that day, they
• 1:35:51
  Speaker 17: followed us in the truck as we left and followed
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 17: us back to the FBI building where was our meeting
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 17: spot after the buys took place.
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 14: And that's the date they quit selling to us.
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: Lissy isn't taking any chances with this witness. he decides
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: to move Montgomery out of state for his own protection.
• 1:36:14
  Speaker 1: In the fall of 1997, Montgomery pleads guilty to seven murders.
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: As part of the plea agreement, the court seals details
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: of his sentence and whereabouts. Sam Carson, FBI.
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 5: I have a warrant for your arrest.
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: Put your hands on your head now. Police arrest Sam Carson,
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: and charge him with the murder of Teresa and Tarita Lucas.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: William Sweeney, already in jail on unrelated charges, is indicted
• 1:36:46
  Speaker 1: for the triple homicide. With Montgomery safely hidden, law enforcement
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: begins to dismantle the K Street crew's infrastructure. Jerome Martin,
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 1: Sean Coates, and gang leader Vincent Hill are arrested in
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 1: the summer of 1998. A federal indictment charges the gang
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: with 13 murders, 87 counts of racketeering, drug distribution, kidnappings,
• 1:37:33
  Speaker 1: and robberies. A federal judge permits recorded testimony from Chrissy
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: Gladden and Robert Butchie Smith to be introduced to trial.
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: Even in death, the gang's victims point a finger at
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: their killers. In 2001, every gang member charged with murder
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: is convicted. They receive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: Gang members not accused of murder plead guilty to charges
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: ranging from kidnapping to drug trafficking.
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 12: There's no doubt in my mind that if these guys
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 12: stayed on the street, they would have continued doing what
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 12: they were doing. That was their life. They knew how
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 12: to sell drugs, how to rob people, how to kill people.
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: Thanks to the tireless efforts of both the FBI and D.C.
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: Metro Police, K Street is now a safer place to live.
• 1:38:35
  Speaker 1: In Detroit, a brutal gang strikes again and again, targeting
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: residents in terrifying home invasions. They attack quickly, take what
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: they want, and leave no evidence behind. As the assaults continue,
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: the FBI and local police join forces to stop the terror.
• 1:38:57
  Speaker 1: In the end, authorities come face to face with a
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: vicious gang that refuses to.
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 4: Be taken alive.
• 1:39:36
  Speaker 2: In the 1990s, neighborhoods in Detroit were terrorized by a
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 2: gang of robbers. Impersonating police officers, they invaded over 100 homes, robbing, raping,
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 2: and torturing their victims. I'm Jim Kallstrom, former head of
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 2: the FBI's New York office. The extraordinary number and sheer
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 2: magnitude of these home invasions stunned authorities. As residents feared
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 2: for their lives, agents teamed up with local police to
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 2: take down this sadistic gang.
• 1:40:13
  Speaker 1: Detroit, Michigan, February, 1994. In some neighborhoods, narcotics trafficking is
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: a way of life, and drug busts by the local
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 1: police are routine. This raid is anything but routine.
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 3: Get up! Get up!
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: The man asks the resident where he keeps his drugs
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: and money. He refuses to talk, confident that police officers
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: would never hurt him. You're the police. You can't shoot me.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 3: Hurry up, y'all.
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 4: Hurry up.
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 3: Hurry up, y'all. Let's go. Hurry up.
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: We got it. We got it.
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 3: Hurry up. We got it. Come on, man.
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 18: Let's go.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: The man calls police and reports that officers broke into
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 1: his home, assaulted him, then stole money and jewelry. The
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: patrolmen know the resident is a local narcotics dealer. They
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: also know there were no drug raids scheduled for that address.
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 1: Could these home invaders be rogue cops? The incident is
• 1:41:37
  Speaker 1: part of a wave of excessively violent home invasions plaguing Detroit.
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: Averaging more than one a week, they spread fear throughout
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: the city. The invaders leave no useful evidence behind. In
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: June 1994, the newly formed Safe Streets Violent Crimes Task
• 1:42:01
  Speaker 1: Force dedicates itself to putting an end to the terror.
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: It is comprised of Detroit police detectives and FBI agents,
• 1:42:09
  Speaker 1: including Special Agent Michael Kosanovich.
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 19: We really were determined to solve these violent home invasions. Initially,
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 19: we were aware of approximately 50 home invasion robberies from
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 19: the beginning of 94 up through June of 94. They
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 19: were fairly violent. They involved shootings, sexual assaults.
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: Investigators begin by searching for connections between the numerous invasions.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: Detroit Police Officer Tom Dunai.
• 1:42:42
  Speaker 20: We took a look at all the police reports that
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 20: were taken over the previous two or three months. We
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 20: analyzed them, we broke them down into the MOs and
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 20: exactly what these perpetrators were doing on each one.
• 1:42:56
  Speaker 1: Investigators identify a recurring method used in the attacks. According
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 1: to Special Agent Bob.
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 21: Pertusso, The gang used a dynamic approach that law enforcement
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 21: officers use when they execute a search warrant or make
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 21: an arrest to gain quick entry into a home and
• 1:43:16
  Speaker 21: then take control of the occupants. They all wore masks
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 21: and they were all armed with semi-automatic pistols, assault rifles, MAC-10s.
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: Based on this consistent M.O., The task force suspects that
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: a single group is committing most of the invasions.
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 20: We're able to narrow this down to, yes, it was
• 1:43:39
  Speaker 20: a gang of about anywhere from four to eight. The
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 20: descriptions all fit the same.
• 1:43:46
  Speaker 1: Their M.O. was the same.
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 20: Everything was the same on almost every home invasion.
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: To gather more firsthand information, investigators re-interview the victims of
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: the home invasions.
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 12: Stan, you had some excitement here the other day.
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: They learn that most of them are involved in narcotics trafficking.
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Michael Kosanovich is not surprised that dealers
• 1:44:09
  Speaker 1: are reluctant to talk.
• 1:44:12
  Speaker 19: They don't want to reveal the fact that they were
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 19: selling drugs or conducting illegal activity out of that residence.
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant Tom Berry tells the dealers that the task
• 1:44:22
  Speaker 1: force has no interest in busting them for narcotics.
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 5: People are getting raped. They're violent. We don't care about
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 5: the drugs. We need your cooperation. About 90% of the time,
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 5: the drug guy come on board. You come on our
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 5: team and say, hey, I deal my drugs. I know
• 1:44:38
  Speaker 5: that's not right. I'll tell you what I know about
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 5: this case.
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 12: He throws a gun at me, and I'm like, he's
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 12: a cop, you know?
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 1: Investigators discover that some home invasion victims are not drug dealers.
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 5: These are sometimes elderly people. They're panicking. They're crying. They're begging.
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 5: got guns to the side of their head. Where's the dope?
• 1:44:57
  Speaker 5: Where's the money? Where's the dope? Where's the money? There
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 5: isn't any money. There isn't any dope.
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: The gang has simply hit the wrong house. Realizing that
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: there are no drugs or money, they turn violent.
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 21: We heard all the horrible stories of the torture, 80-year-old women, pistol-whipped,
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 21: hit with the butts of shotguns.
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Martin Vandervliet.
• 1:45:22
  Speaker 18: What really bothered us the most were the sexual assaults
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 18: of the females who were present on six of the
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 18: home invasions. One in particular, a mother and her 15-year-old
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 18: daughter were raped simultaneously by two members of the home
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 18: invasion group.
• 1:45:37
  Speaker 20: Just the look in their eyes, the fear, their anger,
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 20: that was very controlled but yet was all inside their body.
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 20: You could just feel it with their body emotions. the
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 20: little girl without saying it just through her eyes she
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 20: said please help us.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 14: Please help us.
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 20: And that hit me and that look and that girl's
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 20: eyes will stay with me for the rest of.
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 3: My life.
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 20: We told her that we would do anything in our
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 20: power to bring these guys to justice What I had
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 20: to do is build their confidence up, leave phone calls
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 20: every day to let them know that I'm still thinking
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 20: about them, we didn't forget about anything, and we're on
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 20: your side and you're well protected and you have nothing
• 1:46:24
  Speaker 20: to worry about. The fright that was in them will
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 20: always be there, but they knew they had the full
• 1:46:29
  Speaker 20: cooperation of the Violent Crime Task Force on their side.
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 3: Skinny.
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 1: Concerned that the home invasions are executed like a police raid,
• 1:46:39
  Speaker 1: the task force confronts the possibility the gang is made
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: up of law enforcement personnel.
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 5: We checked to see any recent officers that have been
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 5: fired from the job. Maybe were accused of illegal use
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 5: of narcotics, because this was all revolved around narcotics. So
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 5: you would check any ex-narcotic officers, and there was nothing.
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 1: Investigators quickly recognize that the escalating level of violence in
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 1: these cases indicates that law enforcement is probably not involved.
• 1:47:11
  Speaker 20: In our experience, police officers aren't going to go that
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 20: extra step and fire shots into a house or go
• 1:47:17
  Speaker 20: rape a victim, things of that nature. It's usually go
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 20: in and rob, go in and knock the door down,
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 20: get whatever they need and run out. So in the beginning,
• 1:47:28
  Speaker 20: we had to look at that, but then we had
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 20: to eliminate that more and more as the home invasions
• 1:47:34
  Speaker 20: were occurring. It got more and more violent. We realized
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 20: that it wasn't police officers or ex-police officers.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 18: The biggest problem with these subjects acting as police when
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 18: they committed these home invasions was that they jeopardized legitimate
• 1:47:50
  Speaker 18: police officers. If a victim has been robbed before by
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 18: this gang and then the police show up another time
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 18: to execute a search warrant legitimately, they may start shooting
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 18: or try to harm the police officers.
• 1:48:08
  Speaker 1: Now that investigators have a clearer idea of what they
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: are dealing with, they begin their efforts to identify the
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 1: members of the gang.
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 18: We looked at a number of people who had committed
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 18: these offences in the past, or robbery-type offenses of narcotics dealers.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 18: We contacted various informants and asked them to try and
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 18: determine the identities of these individuals. However, none of the
• 1:48:34
  Speaker 18: informants that we had talked to had any specific information
• 1:48:37
  Speaker 18: regarding the people who were committing these offenses.
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 6: A couple of hours ago.
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 1: Over the next month, the home invasions continue, but the
• 1:48:50
  Speaker 1: task force makes little progress.
• 1:48:54
  Speaker 5: Every home invasion in the city of Detroit where people
• 1:48:57
  Speaker 5: went in posing as officers, we, the Violent Crime Task Force,
• 1:49:00
  Speaker 5: would respond to it. So we got firsthand information, tried
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 5: to get a feel, are these our guys, are these
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 5: not our guys, why are they or why are they not?
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 1: Investigators carefully process each scene, but can find no evidence.
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 5: Everything we did, we weren't getting lucky. We needed a break.
• 1:49:25
  Speaker 1: July 26th, 1994. Nearly two months after the investigation began.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: Detroit police respond to a call about shots fired They
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: find a barely conscious man with multiple gunshot wounds. He
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: has a gun, police jacket, bulletproof vest, and a ski mask.
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 1: The clothing matches descriptions of home invaders given by prior victims.
• 1:50:02
  Speaker 1: Police call for an ambulance. Officers alert the task force.
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: This could be the break they need.
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 5: Here's a guy, he's got a gun on him, he's
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 5: got a police vest on. And my only hope at
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 5: the time was, please don't die. Please don't die.
• 1:50:20
  Speaker 1: Agents rush to the hospital, hoping the man pulls through.
• 1:50:28
  Speaker 1: In Detroit, a joint FBI and police task force tackles
• 1:50:32
  Speaker 1: an epidemic of violent home invasions perpetrated by an elusive
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: gang who uses police-style tactics. Authorities get a break when
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: they find and arrest a critically wounded man they believe
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 1: is part of the ring. FBI agents go to the
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: hospital to question the suspect. Fingerprint identification reveals that his
• 1:51:07
  Speaker 1: name is Dante Garrison. FBI Special Agent Martin Vandervliet.
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 18: He was in pretty bad shape at the time, having
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 18: been shot three times in the arm, the leg, and
• 1:51:20
  Speaker 18: the stomach. He said he was aware of some robberies
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 18: which had occurred, but he didn't want to go into
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 18: specifics at that time.
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Michael Kosanovich remains hopeful.
• 1:51:34
  Speaker 19: We were encouraged by the situation, by our analysis of
• 1:51:38
  Speaker 19: his emotional status. and the fact that we felt he's
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 19: probably at some point going to cooperate if we can
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 19: work this right, if we can talk to him and
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 19: reason with him.
• 1:51:51
  Speaker 1: At Detroit Police Headquarters, the task force discusses strategies for
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: persuading Garrison to cooperate. When the suspect's name comes up,
• 1:52:03
  Speaker 1: Detroit officer Al Page recognizes it. He says he knows
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: his family, and had even once held Garrison when he
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 1: was a baby. To Detective Sergeant Tom Berry, this is
• 1:52:15
  Speaker 1: an extraordinary stroke of luck.
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 5: What are the odds of that? So not only did
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 5: he get shot and didn't die, we got one of
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 5: our officers that knows him. This couldn't be any better.
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: Investigators return to the hospital, and Officer Page exploits his
• 1:52:31
  Speaker 1: relationship with the suspect's family, hoping to cajole Garrison into cooperating.
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 1: the ploy works. Garrison agrees to talk in exchange for
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: immunity from prosecution. He admits that he is in fact
• 1:52:47
  Speaker 1: a member of the home invasion gang and explains that
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 1: his shooting was the result of an invasion that went
• 1:52:53
  Speaker 1: terribly wrong.
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 18: One of the occupants of the residence had seen them,
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 18: said something, and they had fled. They believed that they
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 18: could come back and successfully commit.
• 1:53:03
  Speaker 5: The home invasion the next night.
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 18: However, The occupants of that residence were ready and waiting
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 18: for them.
• 1:53:22
  Speaker 1: The garrison was hit five times. The gang fled, leaving
• 1:53:41
  Speaker 1: the wounded Garrison to fend for himself. Special Agent Bob Pertusso.
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 21: And that was the difference between these criminals and law enforcement.
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 21: A law enforcement officer would not leave a fellow officer
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 21: shot in some backyard.
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 1: Knowing Garrison is in poor physical shape, the task force
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 1: keeps the interview short. They need to keep him healthy.
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 19: He was eventually moved out of the hospital and allowed
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 19: to recuperate at home. Once he became capable of moving
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 19: around without any assistance, it was decided that we should
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 19: take him to an offsite location to have him fully debriefed.
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: The FBI secretly moves Garrison to a safe house outside
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: of Detroit. Investigators inform him of the potential consequences of
• 1:54:42
  Speaker 1: cooperating with the task force, according to Detroit police officer
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: Tom Dunai.
• 1:54:49
  Speaker 20: We let him know that there is a real risk
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 20: of him losing his life if these guys ever found
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 20: out that he's talking with authorities about what has occurred.
• 1:54:58
  Speaker 20: And he wanted protection to make sure nothing would happen
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 20: to him, and naturally we gave that protection to him
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 20: and let him know his name wouldn't be brought up
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 20: until the day of court.
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: During intensive interviews, Garrison reveals that the gang has several
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: more members than previously suspected.
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 18: As it turned out, it wasn't the same group of
• 1:55:19
  Speaker 18: individuals who were committing these home invasions every time. It
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 18: might be from three to ten members. And it really
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 18: depended on who was available when the call went out,
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 18: who could respond to commit that home invasion that evening.
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 18: If they were available, they would go. And if they
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 18: needed money, they would go. If they didn't need money,
• 1:55:40
  Speaker 18: maybe they might stay home that night.
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 1: Garrison divulges that two career criminals control the gang. Obie
• 1:55:50
  Speaker 1: Carter and Andre Woods.
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 19: Obie and Andre Woods directed and determined which targets would
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 19: be hit. and which individuals would go on specific home invasions.
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 19: Once a residence was targeted for a home invasion, Obie
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 19: Carter would page all the gang members that were going
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 19: to be involved that night. A few of the members
• 1:56:18
  Speaker 19: would go out and conduct some surveillance on that location.
• 1:56:21
  Speaker 19: They would try and identify residents, how many, ages. They
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 19: would return back to the gang, debrief everyone, and then
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 19: meet again later that night to actually conduct the home invasion.
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 1: Garrison reveals that Andre Woods actually stages mock-up raids for
• 1:56:41
  Speaker 1: training purposes.
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 18: Andre Woods had taken the gang members to vacant houses
• 1:56:47
  Speaker 18: to practice police-style raids. He said they would be familiar
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 18: with techniques as far as how to make entry into
• 1:56:56
  Speaker 18: the residence. They would enter just as the police would
• 1:56:59
  Speaker 18: enter to.
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 5: Secure it.
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 1: Once the residents are neutralized, the gang interrogates the victims.
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: According to Garrison, Woods is extremely violent. He rapes some
• 1:57:18
  Speaker 1: of his victims and tortures drug dealers when they won't talk.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 18: A lot of times, if the victims would not tell
• 1:57:25
  Speaker 18: them where the money or the drugs were, they would
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 18: physically beat them or shoot them until they were willing
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 18: to provide that information.
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 1: Garrison describes one home invasion in which the gang tortured
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 1: an elderly drug dealer.
• 1:57:38
  Speaker 5: They put the guns to him. Where's the dope? Where's
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 5: the money? I don't know what you're talking about. I
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 5: don't know what you're talking about. They shot him in the.
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 3: Leg.
• 1:57:47
  Speaker 5: He's in agonizing pain, and they're just hammering him again.
• 1:57:51
  Speaker 5: They didn't want to kill him. They wanted him to
• 1:57:53
  Speaker 5: tell them where the drugs and the money was. Shot
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 5: him again in the leg and said, hey, MFR, where's
• 1:58:00
  Speaker 5: the drugs? We know you got the drugs. We know
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 5: it's here. Where's it at? Give us or you're going
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 5: to die. You're going to die. You're going to die.
• 1:58:05
  Speaker 5: They shot him again. They told him what was out.
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 5: Got their money, got their drugs, and they're on their way.
• 1:58:10
  Speaker 19: Once a home invasion was complete, they would return to
• 1:58:14
  Speaker 19: the predetermined location. The money would be divided evenly among
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 19: the members. Any valuables that someone was able to pick up,
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 19: it was theirs to keep.
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 1: Gang member and drug dealer Chris Allen would handle the
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: stolen narcotics.
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 19: It was Chris Allen's responsibility to take those drugs out
• 1:58:38
  Speaker 19: on the street, sell them, get the money for those drugs,
• 1:58:43
  Speaker 19: and divide it evenly among the members.
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: It is also Allen who would suggest who to target
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 1: for their home invasions.
• 1:58:52
  Speaker 18: Allen provided a lot of intelligence to the gang members
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 18: as far as who would be good people to rob.
• 1:58:58
  Speaker 18: Based on his knowledge of their narcotics dealing, he knew
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 18: that they either would have drugs or money present when
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 18: the gang went in.
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: Agents are impressed by Garrison's detailed recollection of past crimes.
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 12: We knew that this was the jewel.
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 19: He was the break that we needed to make a
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 19: significant impact on all these home invasion robberies.
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 1: Although Garrison's cooperation is critical to the investigation, it is
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: unlikely that his testimony would stand up in court.
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 18: It would just be his word against theirs, and that
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 18: would not be sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt
• 1:59:35
  Speaker 18: that these individuals were guilty of these crimes. We needed
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 18: admissions from these people, or we needed to catch them
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 18: in the act of committing a home invasion to be
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 18: certain that they would be locked up.
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 1: Authorities must hit the streets and find a way to
• 1:59:49
  Speaker 1: take down this violent gang. Detroit police and the FBI
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: work to shut down a dangerous home invasion gang. They
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: get a major break when a gang member is found
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: shot and begins cooperating with the investigation. A joint FBI
• 2:00:22
  Speaker 1: police task force begins using the informant's information to identify
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: more gang members, according to Special Agent Martin Vanderfleet.
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 18: A lot of them had criminal histories that matched up
• 2:00:35
  Speaker 18: with what was occurring. We felt they were likely involved.
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 13: In this based on that.
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 18: And we went out and did physical surveillance of their
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 18: residences and could see that they were associating with other
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 18: members of the group.
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 1: Although investigators have received detailed information about the gang's infrastructure
• 2:00:52
  Speaker 1: from their cooperating witness, the task force needs more evidence
• 2:00:56
  Speaker 1: to build their case. Authorities show photo lineups of the
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 1: suspects to the gang's victims, hoping they can identify their attackers.
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 14: Take your time.
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant Tom.
• 2:01:12
  Speaker 5: Berry The bad thing that we ran into is the
• 2:01:15
  Speaker 5: victims could not identify them. They were in masks. Everything
• 2:01:18
  Speaker 5: went by in a flash. They put them down on
• 2:01:20
  Speaker 5: the floor. They could not identify them.
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 1: The inability of witnesses to pick out their attackers hurts
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: the case. Special Agent Michael Kosanovich.
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 19: We don't have enough information to conduct search warrants, to
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 19: make any arrests. All we have is one individual who's
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 19: providing information. What we're now looking for is additional fresh
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 19: information to allow us to go further in the investigation.
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: The task force asks a federal judge for permission to
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 1: use wiretaps. If they can prove that there is an
• 2:02:00
  Speaker 1: ongoing pattern of felonies by the gang, they can take
• 2:02:04
  Speaker 1: down the entire organization on federal racketeering charges.
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 14: And apparently he's also the one who has trained the gang.
• 2:02:13
  Speaker 1: A few days later, in the early morning hours of
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 1: September 4th, 1994, police respond to a report of shots
• 2:02:21
  Speaker 1: fired at an illegal after-hours gambling house. It is owned
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: by Andre Woods, one of the gang's leaders. They interview
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: witnesses and piece together what happened. At 4.30 in the morning,
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: Andre Woods got into an argument with a few of
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: the gamblers.
• 2:02:41
  Speaker 5: It got out of hand. He didn't like, they disrespected him.
• 2:02:45
  Speaker 5: Gunned him down, cold blood. Just wiped out, you know,
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 5: four human lives in a second. He just kind of
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 5: walked out. That's just the way he was. Got in
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 5: his Mercedes Benz and took off.
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 1: The task force provides Detroit Homicide with information on Woods
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 1: and his car. Homicide detectives use the information to alert
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: law enforcement nationwide in an all-out effort to find the fugitive.
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 18: Obviously, this caused us to try and speed up our
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 18: efforts to obtain these wiretaps because we had had demonstrated
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 18: to us the propensity for extreme violence. If Woods was
• 2:03:32
  Speaker 18: willing to commit a quadruple homicide, we felt that they
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 18: wouldn't be afraid to commit homicides if necessary in the
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 18: commission of the home invasions.
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: Five days after the quadruple homicide, a judge grants the
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: task force permission to monitor the pagers of several of
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 1: the gang members. They begin collecting phone numbers and discover
• 2:03:56
  Speaker 1: a consistent pattern of calls between them. It shows further
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: evidence of the gang's organization. A week later, the unimaginable happens.
• 2:04:08
  Speaker 1: Fugitive Andre Woods strolls into Detroit police headquarters.
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 5: We walked in and said, hey, I hear you guys
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 5: are looking for me.
• 2:04:18
  Speaker 1: Police believe Woods turned himself in because the manhunt was
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 1: getting too hot. He thought it would be easier to
• 2:04:25
  Speaker 1: fight the charges in court. FBI Special Agent Bob Bertusso
• 2:04:31
  Speaker 1: is glad to have Woods off the streets.
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 21: Because he was so violent, he was an enforcer for
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 21: the gang. And if Woods was still out, there was
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 21: a great potential for more people to get hurt.
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: A week after Andre Woods surrenders, the task force uses
• 2:04:51
  Speaker 1: the evidence from the pagers to get its first telephone
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 1: wiretap on the remaining gang leader, O.B. Carter.
• 2:04:59
  Speaker 18: We were hoping to be able to identify past home invasions,
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 18: proceeds of those robbers, and most of all, identify future
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 18: home invasions so that we could prevent them or catch
• 2:05:09
  Speaker 18: these individuals in the act.
• 2:05:11
  Speaker 1: The task force also places Carter under surveillance by a
• 2:05:14
  Speaker 1: Detroit police crew that includes Officer Steve Miller.
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 22: Guy was really surveillance conscious, so it was a pretty
• 2:05:23
  Speaker 22: hard target to follow, but we were able to follow him.
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: The information gathered through surveillance, combined with the evidence from
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: the wiretap, gives investigators further insight into the gang's activities.
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 19: We were able to start to watch their moves and
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 19: start to anticipate as opposed to react. Anticipate where they
• 2:05:47
  Speaker 19: were gonna strike and which members were gonna be involved
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 19: in the next home invasion.
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: Monitoring phone conversations they learn to recognize gang members' voices
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 1: and code words. The gang calls their home invasions licks.
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 1: Detroit Police Officer Tom Dunai.
• 2:06:09
  Speaker 20: After we kind of knew that they had just got
• 2:06:12
  Speaker 20: done with a lick, they all get on the phone
• 2:06:14
  Speaker 20: and start talking about it and laughing about it and
• 2:06:17
  Speaker 20: telling how much money they got out of a certain
• 2:06:19
  Speaker 20: house or how many guns they got out of a
• 2:06:21
  Speaker 20: certain house. Then they would talk about narcotics that they
• 2:06:24
  Speaker 20: got out of the house.
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: From these intercepted details of the crimes, investigators are able
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: to connect the gang to specific home invasions.
• 2:06:33
  Speaker 20: They weren't very descriptive, but they were descriptive enough where
• 2:06:36
  Speaker 20: we knew what they were talking about, what they got
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 20: out of the house. So we were able to match
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 20: that up with the reports of the victims stating to
• 2:06:42
  Speaker 20: us what was taken from the house at the time
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 20: of the home invasion.
• 2:06:46
  Speaker 1: But it is still not enough.
• 2:06:48
  Speaker 18: We didn't know specifically which individuals in that group had
• 2:06:52
  Speaker 18: committed the home invasions. We still needed more information, and
• 2:06:57
  Speaker 18: we really wanted to catch them in the act of
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 18: committing a home invasion.
• 2:07:02
  Speaker 1: One night, a surveillance officer is watching a home where
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 1: gang members are meeting. Suddenly, an unmarked Detroit police car
• 2:07:11
  Speaker 1: pulls up. Before surveillance can radio a warning, four plainclothes
• 2:07:16
  Speaker 1: officers jump out and head in the direction of the
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 1: gang house. Dispatch tells surveillance that the four are working
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: on another case, looking for a possible fugitive at the
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 1: house next door. The officer is worried that the violent
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 1: gang members don't know it. A Detroit plainclothes arrest team
• 2:07:45
  Speaker 1: approaches a house unaware that a vicious gang armed with
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 1: automatic weapons is in the house next door. An officer
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 1: assigned to surveil the gang watches anxiously, not knowing if
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 1: the gang will think the officers are coming for them,
• 2:08:04
  Speaker 1: and open fire. After a few tense moments, the officer
• 2:08:13
  Speaker 1: is relieved to see no indication of a gang response.
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 3: Hi.
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 1: Later, the Joint FBI Police Task Force investigating the gang
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 1: monitors a wiretap on a gang leader's home. Detroit Police
• 2:08:37
  Speaker 1: Detective Sergeant Tom Berry learns the gang did in fact
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: know the arrest team was outside.
• 2:08:43
  Speaker 5: Apparently they were getting ready to do a home invasion
• 2:08:46
  Speaker 5: and a police car pulled up. Home invaders don't know
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 5: why these cops are out there. They thought they were
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 5: coming after them. And the wire, what they said, is
• 2:08:56
  Speaker 5: that those cops would have came in here, we would
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 5: have killed them, just killed them all. That made the
• 2:09:01
  Speaker 5: hair on our arms stand up.
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: Detroit police officer Tom Dunai is even more determined to
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: get the gang off the streets as soon as possible.
• 2:09:10
  Speaker 20: We started getting enough evidence on these guys via the
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 20: wiretap that we decided that before somebody actually gets killed here,
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 20: we need to do something quickly.
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 1: But investigators need direct evidence of the gang committing a
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 1: crime to ensure convictions under federal racketeering statutes. Special Agent
• 2:09:29
  Speaker 1: Bob Pertuso.
• 2:09:32
  Speaker 21: They would be in possession of their weapons. They'd be
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 21: wearing their bulletproof vests. They'd be in possession....
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 5: Of the goods that they stole.
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: To protect innocent bystanders, investigators decide to arrest the gang
• 2:09:47
  Speaker 1: after they leave a home invasion. Special Agent Martin Vandervliet.
• 2:09:51
  Speaker 2: We know.
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 18: We did not want to try and arrest them while
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 18: they were in the house committing a home invasion and
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 18: possibly risk a hostage situation.
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: But taking down this brutal gang will be extremely dangerous.
• 2:10:05
  Speaker 21: They had attempted to kill people, rob people, sexually assaulted women,
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 21: very violent. In fact, we had developed that information that
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 21: they had planned to shoot it out with the police
• 2:10:23
  Speaker 21: when confronted. Very difficult situation.
• 2:10:27
  Speaker 5: We know they're going to have vest on. We know
• 2:10:29
  Speaker 5: they're going to have automatic weapons. There was no doubt
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 5: in our minds that these people, they weren't going to
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 5: just throw up their hands and give up. They're going
• 2:10:35
  Speaker 5: to shoot it out.
• 2:10:37
  Speaker 18: Because of the large number of individuals who were involved,
• 2:10:40
  Speaker 18: as well as the weapons that they were carrying, they
• 2:10:42
  Speaker 18: were heavily armed with AK-47s, MAC-10s, Uzis, all the dangerous
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 18: weapons out there in the street. We believed that we
• 2:10:51
  Speaker 18: needed to use a SWAT team to arrest these individuals.
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 1: Agents meet with the SWAT commander who lays out the plan.
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 1: The tactical squad responsible for making the arrests will hide
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 1: inside an ambulance. With its emergency lights activated, the ambulance
• 2:11:10
  Speaker 1: will approach the home invaders vehicle from behind as if
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 1: it were passing. Investigators believe that since the gang will
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 1: have just committed a home invasion, they will try to
• 2:11:20
  Speaker 1: remain inconspicuous and pull to the side of the road.
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 12: And we're going to ram them with the ambulance.
• 2:11:27
  Speaker 5: The 20 SWAT guys, all dressed in SWAT gear with
• 2:11:30
  Speaker 5: bulletproof vests, are going to get out and get a
• 2:11:32
  Speaker 5: half moon around them so when they start to get
• 2:11:34
  Speaker 5: out of the car or the van, we've got them contained.
• 2:11:37
  Speaker 5: We didn't want to get into a chase. That was
• 2:11:40
  Speaker 5: one of the things we didn't want. That's why we
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 5: decided to ram them, disable their vehicle. We didn't want
• 2:11:45
  Speaker 5: a chase.
• 2:11:47
  Speaker 1: The final component of the plan requires taking down the
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 1: rest of the organization.
• 2:11:52
  Speaker 18: We knew from past experience that only certain members of
• 2:11:55
  Speaker 18: that group.
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 1: Would be involved.
• 2:11:57
  Speaker 5: It wouldn't be the whole group.
• 2:11:58
  Speaker 18: So we had other police persons ready to make arrests
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 18: at other locations for whoever was not present during that
• 2:12:06
  Speaker 18: home invasion, as well as to execute six search warrants.
• 2:12:09
  Speaker 1: We had hundreds of.
• 2:12:10
  Speaker 18: Agents and police officers involved in our plans for the
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 18: takedown of this group.
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 1: For weeks, the task force works around the clock monitoring wiretaps,
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 1: looking for the right opportunity to spring their trap Then,
• 2:12:29
  Speaker 1: on November 9th, they hear gang members planning their next
• 2:12:33
  Speaker 1: home invasion.
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 21: When we intercepted conversations about a plan to do it
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 21: in two days, we were at a great tactical advantage.
• 2:12:42
  Speaker 21: We had our federal search warrant signed, we had the
• 2:12:44
  Speaker 21: assignments to conduct the searches, and of course the tactical
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 21: people were actually going to handle the arrest.
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, gang members don't mention where the home invasion will be.
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 1: We don't know where yet. The next day, surveillance watches
• 2:13:03
  Speaker 1: two gang members drive through a neighborhood as though scouting
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 1: for a potential target. Task force now believes they know
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 1: approximately where the home invaders will strike. Police headquarters, November 11th.
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 1: With the home invasion only hours away, The task force
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 1: goes over the plan with team leaders one final time.
• 2:13:29
  Speaker 1: To underscore the danger the officers face, they play a
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 1: tape recording of the gang's threat to kill police.
• 2:13:40
  Speaker 5: We played that tape for the people who were gonna
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 5: take these people down later on. This is the real deal.
• 2:13:45
  Speaker 5: We're not playing with these people. These people aren't playing
• 2:13:48
  Speaker 5: with you. They have no hesitation of killing a police officer.
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 5: We could just see the officers just intently staring. This
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 5: is real. These guys are going to kill us.
• 2:13:59
  Speaker 18: At this point, we had been investigating this group for
• 2:14:02
  Speaker 18: several months, and it was a relatively long-term investigation.
• 2:14:05
  Speaker 5: And I think most.
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 18: Of us on the task force wanted to conclude it,
• 2:14:09
  Speaker 18: wanted to get them arrested.
• 2:14:10
  Speaker 5: So we were pretty excited.
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 18: I think the adrenaline level was pretty high, and we
• 2:14:14
  Speaker 18: really were expecting that this was going to be the conclusion.
• 2:14:17
  Speaker 18: One way or another, we were going to get these
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 18: people locked up that evening.
• 2:14:22
  Speaker 1: SWAT gives Officer Steve Miller and the rest of the
• 2:14:24
  Speaker 1: surveillance teams armor-piercing ammunition for their handguns in case the
• 2:14:28
  Speaker 1: takedown becomes a gunfight.
• 2:14:32
  Speaker 22: We knew these guys wore the same kind of armor
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 22: we wore, you know, exact same stuff, and we knew
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 22: that they were shooting armor-piercing rounds out of their weapons, so,
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 22: you know, we had to try to at least be
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 22: on level par with them.
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 1: That evening, Surveillance observes the home invaders traveling in two cars.
• 2:14:54
  Speaker 5: They drive to the area they drove the day before.
• 2:14:56
  Speaker 5: Everybody's tightening up, tightening up. They drive by the house
• 2:14:59
  Speaker 5: and they leave. Well, they don't do the robbery. So
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 5: we're thinking, what the heck's going on?
• 2:15:08
  Speaker 1: FBI Special Agent Martin Vandervliet follows the gang from a distance.
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 18: We didn't want to get too close. because we didn't
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 18: want to risk these individuals seeing police in the area
• 2:15:18
  Speaker 18: and possibly aborting their raid.
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 1: The home invaders enter a dark alley and suddenly cut
• 2:15:26
  Speaker 1: their headlights. They disappear into the darkness, making it impossible
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 1: to tell whether they parked or continued through the alley.
• 2:15:36
  Speaker 5: We're not panicking, but where the heck are they at?
• 2:15:38
  Speaker 5: Where the heck are they at?
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 1: Police cannot move in for a closer look without potentially
• 2:15:45
  Speaker 1: blowing their cover. If the home invaders get away, they
• 2:15:49
  Speaker 1: will be free to commit another heinous crime. The FBI
• 2:15:57
  Speaker 1: and Detroit police tail a gang of violent home invaders,
• 2:16:02
  Speaker 1: hoping to catch them in the act. Authorities are anxious
• 2:16:05
  Speaker 1: to bring closure to a six month investigation.
• 2:16:10
  Speaker 18: I'll be cool.
• 2:16:11
  Speaker 14: Just lay back here.
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 12: Lay back here.
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 3: Just be cool.
• 2:16:14
  Speaker 1: But when the home invaders cut their headlights, police lose them.
• 2:16:22
  Speaker 1: Minutes later at the operations center, Detroit Detective Sergeant Tom
• 2:16:26
  Speaker 1: Berry learns from 911 that the gang has struck again.
• 2:16:31
  Speaker 5: Home invasion just happened. Six guys in masks dressed as
• 2:16:34
  Speaker 5: police officers. They robbed the wrong house, got nothing out
• 2:16:37
  Speaker 5: of it. We got two victims that are both almost
• 2:16:40
  Speaker 5: 70 years old, can't identify.
• 2:16:44
  Speaker 1: Since the home invaders did not steal anything, investigators decide
• 2:16:48
  Speaker 1: not to make any arrests. There's simply no evidence to
• 2:16:51
  Speaker 1: tie the gang to the crime.
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 5: We can't prove our case, so we sit and we wait.
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 1: Agents and officers scour the area looking for the home invaders.
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 1: A Detroit police surveillance officer doubles back to the gang's
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 1: meeting place, thinking they will return there after the invasion.
• 2:17:16
  Speaker 1: When he arrives, he sees them coming out of the house,
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 1: dressed in their raid clothes and getting into a van.
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 1: It appears that the gang is heading out for another robbery.
• 2:17:34
  Speaker 1: When gang members are dropped off at a house, Miller
• 2:17:37
  Speaker 1: is right behind them.
• 2:17:39
  Speaker 22: I ducked into a nice little parking space where I
• 2:17:43
  Speaker 22: could see the front of the house and I could
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 22: see the van.
• 2:17:46
  Speaker 5: I adjust my mirrors, you know, get my surveillance mode.
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 1: Finally, authorities are in position to actually see the home
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 1: invaders commit a crime.
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 5: So the game plan was, they do the robbery, we
• 2:18:09
  Speaker 5: can't stop it. If we go in, you risk hostages.
• 2:18:11
  Speaker 5: We don't want hostages, we don't want nobody to get hurt.
• 2:18:18
  Speaker 1: Suddenly, Officer Miller notices the home invader's van creeping up
• 2:18:23
  Speaker 1: behind him.
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 22: My heart starts pounding, you know, I'm like, this guy
• 2:18:27
  Speaker 22: saw me. I got my weapon in my hand, you know, and.
• 2:18:30
  Speaker 5: Just in case anything happens, you know, I gotta be ready.
• 2:18:40
  Speaker 12: He just cruised by me.
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 1: The van pulls up to the.
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 3: House.
• 2:18:48
  Speaker 22: These guys came running out, just all kind of stuff
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 22: in their hands, and they all jumped into the van.
• 2:18:55
  Speaker 1: With a confirmed invasion, the task force puts their arrest
• 2:18:58
  Speaker 1: plan into motion.
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 5: Now we're ready to go. Now we're going to take
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 5: them down. We turn it over to the SWAT team.
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 1: An ambulance loaded with SWAT personnel approaches the gang's van
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 1: and attempts to disable the vehicle by ramming it. But
• 2:19:17
  Speaker 1: at the last second, the van speeds up and the
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 1: ambulance cannot make a strong hit. The van, which has
• 2:19:24
  Speaker 1: more horsepower, easily gets away from the SWAT team. FBI
• 2:19:29
  Speaker 1: Special Agent Martin Vandervliet.
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 18: We obviously had a major problem. We had six highly
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 18: armed individuals in a van and we had to stop them.
• 2:19:43
  Speaker 1: Surveillance teams begin pursuing the van, knowing the chase will
• 2:19:46
  Speaker 1: likely end in a gun battle. FBI Special Agent Bob Bertusco.
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 21: Whenever you have armed robbers running from the police, wearing
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 21: bulletproof vests, armed with automatic weapons, once they broke through
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 21: the attempts by the police to stop them, there was
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 21: going to be a confrontation, absolutely.
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 1: Officer Miller and the other pursuit vehicles continue to chase
• 2:20:11
  Speaker 1: the van through the streets of Detroit. Suddenly, the van's
• 2:20:16
  Speaker 1: rear door is open and the gang begins shooting at
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 1: law enforcement. A SWAT sniper inside one of the chase
• 2:20:23
  Speaker 1: cars returns fire. At police headquarters, Officer Tom Dunai continues
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 1: to monitor the chase.
• 2:20:35
  Speaker 20: It was amazing because of what had happened, how controlled
• 2:20:39
  Speaker 20: the officers were in the street. There wasn't any panic,
• 2:20:42
  Speaker 20: but people were screaming, shots are being fired. We even
• 2:20:46
  Speaker 20: heard gunfire over the radio. That's how strong it was.
• 2:20:51
  Speaker 20: And in my heart, I was scared for the officers
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 20: at that point.
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 1: The chase continues for several miles. Then, inexplicably, the van stops.
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 5: Four guys bail out the van.
• 2:21:07
  Speaker 22: They're firing at me, and I jump out of my car,
• 2:21:11
  Speaker 22: and I fire one shot. I get one shot off
• 2:21:13
  Speaker 22: of my 9mm, and it jammed. Natural instinct was just,
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 22: these guys aren't getting away. Let me chase these guys.
• 2:21:27
  Speaker 1: SWAT officers order the remaining two home invaders to exit
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 1: the van. But the van takes off. And the chase continues,
• 2:21:39
  Speaker 1: leaving Miller alone to pursue the heavily armed suspects.
• 2:21:47
  Speaker 22: It was like I could feel the bullet going by.
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 22: To this day, I can't explain to you why I
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 22: didn't get shot. And I say, okay, police, we got
• 2:22:01
  Speaker 22: you surrounded.
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 3: Come up.
• 2:22:03
  Speaker 1: Miller thought other officers were following behind him. He suddenly
• 2:22:07
  Speaker 1: realizes he's all alone.
• 2:22:10
  Speaker 5: And it's like a ghost town. I mean, nobody there.
• 2:22:14
  Speaker 1: Even worse, he does not know where his attacker has gone.
• 2:22:19
  Speaker 1: The FBI and Detroit police engage in a running gun
• 2:22:26
  Speaker 1: battle with a violent home invasion gang. Officer Steve Miller
• 2:22:34
  Speaker 1: narrowly escapes an ambush. When backup arrives, Miller begins searching
• 2:22:42
  Speaker 1: for his attacker.
• 2:22:43
  Speaker 22: We start going up eastbound on Pasadena, just checking, checking.
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 22: Sure enough, I get about five houses up, and this
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 22: guy is laying face down.
• 2:22:54
  Speaker 5: So I'm like, you know, okay, get up, you know,
• 2:22:59
  Speaker 5: get up.
• 2:23:02
  Speaker 22: And, you know, he wasn't moving, kind of lifeless, so
• 2:23:06
  Speaker 22: I greased around the field, you know, to see if
• 2:23:08
  Speaker 22: I could get a pulse from him.
• 2:23:10
  Speaker 6: He's dead.
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 3: He's dead.
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 1: He's later identified as Obie Carter, the gang's leader. The
• 2:23:19
  Speaker 1: subsequent autopsy concludes that Officer Miller's first shot, an armor-piercing round,
• 2:23:24
  Speaker 1: punctured Carter's bulletproof vest and fatally wounded him. Miles away,
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 1: the police chase comes to an abrupt end when the
• 2:23:36
  Speaker 1: gang's van breaks down. The two remaining home invaders jump
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 1: out of the van. One surrenders, but the other will
• 2:23:44
  Speaker 1: not go down without a fight. FBI agents pursue the
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 1: fleeing gunman. Searching down a dark alley, Special Agent Bob
• 2:24:00
  Speaker 1: Pertuso sees a dark shape and carefully approaches.
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 21: The getaway driver was lying on the ground. He had
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 21: been shot a number of times.
• 2:24:15
  Speaker 1: The agents call for an ambulance. The getaway driver is
• 2:24:20
  Speaker 1: taken to a hospital and, against all odds, survives. Following
• 2:24:28
  Speaker 1: a series of fierce gun battles, the task force assesses
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 1: the casualties. Hundreds of shots were fired. Incredibly, no one
• 2:24:38
  Speaker 1: on the arrest team was hit. Our plan worked.
• 2:24:44
  Speaker 21: Did not anticipate the high-speed chase and the violent confrontation,
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 21: but it happened.
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 12: It was dealt with effectively.
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 1: But only three of the six gang members involved in
• 2:24:57
  Speaker 1: the chase have been apprehended. Detroit police officer Tom Dunai
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 1: tries to locate them.
• 2:25:05
  Speaker 20: What I had done was call local hospitals to find
• 2:25:08
  Speaker 20: out if anybody was admitted with a gunshot wound. And
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 20: we called around a few hospitals. We had a hit
• 2:25:13
  Speaker 20: at one hospital and they says, oh yes, we just
• 2:25:15
  Speaker 20: came in with multiple gunshot wounds.
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 1: At the hospital, Dunai confirms the gunshot victim is one
• 2:25:22
  Speaker 1: of the fugitives. As the search for the remaining two
• 2:25:27
  Speaker 1: gang members continues, FBI agents, the FBI SWAT team, and
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 1: local police serve search warrants on six of the gang
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 1: members' houses. They find critical evidence, according to FBI Special
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 1: Agent Martin Vandervliet.
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 18: Well, we found a lot of evidence that had been
• 2:25:44
  Speaker 18: taken from robberies, including specific items of clothing, jewelry, and
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 18: then we also recovered a great amount of weapons. A
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 18: lot of the houses would have three to five guns
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 18: in them, as well as ammunition, vests, pry bars, masks,
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 18: and other things.
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 1: At Detroit Police Headquarters, Detective Sergeant Tom Berry questions the
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 1: captured members of the home invasion gang. He lets them
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 1: know they are facing long prison terms and that those
• 2:26:16
  Speaker 1: who cooperate first may get reduced sentences.
• 2:26:20
  Speaker 5: Probably 95% of them told us exactly what happened. That's
• 2:26:24
  Speaker 5: how we were able to identify the rest of the gang,
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 5: the rest of the peripheral players.
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 1: Over the following months, the task force systematically arrests gang members.
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 1: In the end, a total of 29 are convicted and
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 1: sentenced on federal or state charges in the biggest home
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 1: invasion prosecution to date.
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 21: This particular task force, it was the first major task
• 2:26:51
  Speaker 21: force between the FBI and the Detroit Police Department. We
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 21: wanted to do a good job for those victims.
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 1: We made a difference.
• 2:27:06
  Speaker 21: We really made a difference to the city of Detroit.
• 2:27:10
  Speaker 21: We did make it a safer place.
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 20: Well, it just goes to show you that when law
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 20: enforcement agencies can work together smoothly with the right people,
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 20: anything can be accomplished.
• 2:27:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks to the collaborative efforts of the Detroit Police Department
• 2:27:25
  Speaker 1: and the FBI, the violent home invaders gang is dismantled forever.
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 3: Thank you.