BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Four men, ranging in age from 19 to 24, were charged with a number of crimes including murder on Friday in Federal court. Those crimes included a brazen daytime shooting outside of the state court, that injured three people.
Arrested were Keishawn Donald, 19; Trevon Wright, also known as “Tre,” 19; Kyran Dangerfield, 24, and Eric Hayes, also known as “Heavyweight Champ,” 24.
A federal grand jury in New Haven returned an indictment charging the four Bridgeport men with conspiring to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity, including drug trafficking, murder and attempted murder.
Wright was arrested Friday. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge William I. Garfinkel via videoconference and is detained. Donald, Dangerfield and Hayes were previously detained and are in federal or state custody.
As alleged in court documents and statements made in court, in an effort to address escalating violence in Bridgeport, the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals, and Bridgeport Police are actively investigating multiple Bridgeport-based groups whose members are involved in narcotics trafficking, murder and other acts of violence. Donald, Wright, Dangerfield and Hayes are members or associates of the “East End gang,” which began as a local street gang based in the East End of Bridgeport, but currently has members and associates who are either incarcerated or living throughout Bridgeport and surrounding towns. The East End gang has been aligned with other groups, including the PT Barnum Gang, the East Side gang and 150, which is a geographic gang based on the West Side of Bridgeport. These groups were aligned against rival organizations in Bridgeport, including the “Original North End” (“O.N.E.”) and the “Greene Homes Boyz,” (“GHB/Hotz”), based in the Charles F. Greene Homes Housing Complex in Bridgeport’s North End.
The indictment alleges that the East End gang distributed heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and Percocet pills; used and shared firearms; and committed murder and other acts of violence against rival gang members and other individuals. East End members celebrated their criminal conduct on social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube, and committed acts of intimidation and made threats to deter potential witnesses to their crimes and to protect gang members and associates from detection and prosecution by law enforcement authorities.
Among the violent acts committed by the gang, the indictment alleges that:
On January 30, 2018, Donald shot and killed Eric Heard, a.k.a. “Fetti,” a member and associate of the GHB/Hotz gang;
On September 18, 2019, Wright shot and attempted to kill Marquis Isreal, a.k.a. “Garf” or “Gbaby,” a member and associate of the O.N.E. gang;
On December 8, 2019, Wright shot and attempted to kill Arvan Smith, a.k.a. “Arv Barkley,” an associate of the O.N.E. gang;
On January 26, 2020, Wright and “JW,” an East End associate who is now deceased, shot and killed Myreke Kenion and shot and attempted to kill D’Andre Brown, both associates of the GHB/Hotz gang;
On June 24, 2020, Dangerfield, JW and a juvenile shot and killed Tyler Ballew, a member and associate of the O.N.E. gang;
On October 17, 2019, Donald agreed with other East End gang members to shoot and attempt to kill Joshua Gilbert, a member and associate of the O.N.E. gang;
If convicted, Donald, Wright and Dangerfield face a maximum term of imprisonment of life, and Hayes faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.