Henry L Camp Palm Beach Gardens

WEST PALM BEACH — In nearly 150 pages, a Palm Beach County sheriff's gang unit detective outlines an abbreviated history of the two decades of terror rained down on the county by the Firehouse Clique, their allies and their gang rivals.

The report draws from hundreds of interviews, thousands of recorded jail calls and even more social media posts to piece together a web of gang-related crime including murders, fires, shootings and assaults tied to drugs, guns and years-long beefs.

On Thursday, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, standing by key county, state and federal leaders, announced that his office will form a violent crime task force with other law enforcement agencies, including West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach police, the FBI, the DEA, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and the Department of Homeland Security.

Bradshaw pointed to West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James, who took office in March, as a leading force in bringing the task force together. James, in turn, said he is keeping his campaign promises for a safer city and county.

They have identified 10 key gangs, including the Firehouse Clique, that they plan to target in "Operation First 48": MS-13, the Latin Kings; S Avenue/Monroe Heights; the Bloods; the Maniac Latin Disciples; Camp 19, and Downtown, both of which are active in West Palm Beach; Zoe Mafia Family, or ZMF; and the Knoc Gang and the Andy Gang, both of which are active in West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach.

"We're going to use every single resource and investigative technique we have" to get gangs," Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says. "The bad guys should be shaking in their boots."

The task force announcement comes one day after authorities arrested 14 Firehouse Clique members on racketeering charges in the two-year investigation called "Operation Prometheus." Fifteen of the guns they picked up are tied to 54 incidents across the county, including guns used in the March 23 fatal shooting of Bobby Coe, 27, in the north end of West Palm Beach and the November 2017 killing of Romario Edwards, 20, outside his home on 51st Street.

"That's just the start," Bradshaw said Wednesday after announcing the arrests.

History of violence

Sheriff's records in those cases indicate that local law enforcement officers have been tracking the Clique, their associates and their rivals for more than a decade.

In particular, the detective looks at the "Fifth" sect of the gang, along Fifth Street in Riviera Beach, and the younger, more trigger happy "042" sect on 42nd Street in West Palm Beach. Authorities have noted that the 042 members appear to be hit men of sorts for the older Fifth sect.

In the arrest report filed for the racketeering cases, a sheriff's detective pointed to more than a dozen instances of violence involving the two sects across Palm Beach County:

Aug. 3, 2013: Travis Stubbs threatens to shoot Andrew Dixon, a member of the rival Monroe Heights gang, and his cousin after someone shot at Stubbs' mother's home.

Aug. 9, 2014: Cartriel "Lil Cott" Gibbs Jr, 20, a member of the rival Broadmoor Clique, is killed in Riviera Beach. Over the next 12 hours, the gangs shot back and forth at least five times, according to police records. An 8-month-old was injured in one of the shootings.

Sept. 11, 2014: Stubbs was repeatedly shot with both a high-powered rifle and a handgun, but refused to cooperate with investigators.

Dec. 14, 2015: Dixon, 20, is shot to death in Lake Worth. Sheriff's authorities say Stubbs, now 25; Adrian Nixon, 27; and Lamar I. Jackson, 27, are responsible for his killing.

Dec. 16, 2015: A man was killed during a home invasion in Clewiston. Authorities pinned Nixon to the fatal shooting, thanks to telephone records. They noted that the gun used in that fatal shooting was also fired two days earlier when Dixon was killed.

Feb. 21, 2016: Three members of the rival Broadmoor Clique were shot at while driving in Riviera Beach. They refused to cooperate with authorities.

Feb. 26, 2016: Travis Stubbs was repeatedly shot, again, by an assault rifle, and, again, refused to cooperate. The car spotted fleeing from the scene had been rented one of the Broadmoor members who was shot at days prior. Authorities found a gun in Stubbs' home that was used in that Feb. 21 shooting.

Feb. 8, 2017: Antoine Smith, 31, was shot to death on Interstate 95. Stubbs, J'lyn Wright, Devonte White and two others are believed to be responsible for that killing.

Feb. 21, 2017: White was arrested for fatally shooting 18-month-old I'zarion Colin in May 29, 2014, during an attempted robbery. Last month, a judge sentenced White to life in prison for killing the toddler.

June 29, 2017: Albert Jones, 42, was killed on 10th Street in West Palm Beach. Stubbs and Wright are suspected in his homicide.

April 26, 2018: Firehouse member Wright shot into a car on 45th Street and Haverhill Road, but the bullet ricocheted and hit him in the chest.

July 28, 2018: Kerwin Richards, a 23-year-old Broadmoor associate, was killed on Belvedere Road. Authorities say Wright, 25-year-old Jonathan Storms and 19-year-old Devonte Igwenagu were involved in his killing.

Aug. 17, 2018: There was a shooting at Palm Beach Central High School by Firehouse members, Derrick Williams and Marc Lucien. The victims, Daniel Foster Sr. and Varnard Albury, refused to cooperate with investigators.

The players

Bradshaw called the gang members, "little thugs that are in our community."

Many told authorities they had been involved in gang activity since as early as elementary school. One man described 042 as "a family."

They showed allegiance to their self-made families by their gang signs, rap lyrics, social media posts and tattoos that played of the gang name.

Beyond the 14 arrested in Operation Prometheus, authorities pointed to numerous other gang associates tied to dozens of violent crimes throughout the county. The arrest report lists 15 men and their tattoos and indicates they have been arrested more than 400 times since 2005 and convicted more than 80 times. Among them:

— Earl Johnson, now 24, who is serving a nearly 13-year sentence for the October 2009 shooting death of 17-year-old Anthony Hughey. Johnson's co-defendant in the case, Marcus Steward, who has ties to the Firehouse Clique, was cleared in that case. However, he now faces the death penalty for his alleged role in the 2017 triple killing in Jupiter.

— Christopher McMillian, whose mother turned him in to authorities for his role in the 2005 killing of 21-year-old Hershell Gibson McNeil in Riviera Beach. He served four years in prison for that killing, was released and is now back in state custody for robbery.

— Robert Nunn, who, along with James Whitfield, is facing a homicide charge in the Jan. 28 killing of Ismael Reyes Cabrera-Bonilla outside the 32-year-old's Lake Worth Beach home.

— Adrian Nixon, who is accused in numerous homicides and faces charges for racketeering, explained to authorities "that he hangs around a lot of violent people, and he has been implicated in a lot of things because of people that he hangs around with, but at the end of the day he can't help who he is around or what hood he grew up in."

Facing racketeering charges but not charged with murder are Moab A. Abrams, Deandre Burgess, Rashar Henry, Roderick L. Henry, James Randall, Patrick R. Thomas and Mario Williams.

ohitchcock@pbpost.com

@ohitchcock

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Source: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2019/06/13/violent-crimes-task-force-formed-for-palm-beach-county/4912276007/

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