Transcript: Mayor Adams Makes Public Safety-Related Announcement with Bronx D.A. Darcel Clark and NYPD Commissioner Tisch

June 23, 2025

Video available at: https://youtu.be/CsxvmNZUxn0

Darcel Clark, District Attorney, Bronx County: Good morning. I guess it's morning. We have a few minutes left, but good morning. With me this morning is New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny, Court Officer Major Eugene Hunter, Court Officer Major Clemont Mack. I am so pleased that they stand here with me today because it shows how seriously we are taking violence in the Bronx.  

And also my staff who investigated this conspiracy along with the NYPD's Gun Suppression Division. Edward Christian Uy, deputy bureau chief of the Rikers Island Prosecution Bureau. Assistant District Attorney Lily Gebru of the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau. Assistant District Attorney John Sizemore of the Public Integrity Bureau. Newton Mendys, chief of the Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau, along with his deputy and supervisor Keturah Ladd and Stephen Russo.  

Also, Denise Kojo, who is the deputy chief of the Investigations Division, along with Wanda Perez-Maldonado, chief of the Investigations Division. And I want to thank you, the media, for coming as well, for covering this. First of all, you know, I hate that my beloved county is on the news for shootings and assaults. The Bronx is so much bigger and better than this. But we must keep the public informed as to what is happening here.  

The Bronx is bleeding, and I'm doing everything within my power to make it stop. Again, in this all-too-familiar scenario, we're talking about teenagers with guns, using them cavalierly, callously, and cold-bloodedly. Today, I'm announcing a 208-count indictment against 19 alleged members and associates of the 9RAQ gang in the Claremont area and the Thirdside gang from Belmont.  

The charges include murder, attempted murder, gang assault, robbery, gun possession, and conspiracy. Nine of the 19 defendants were teens when they allegedly committed the crimes. One was as young as 15. The defendants also included a 17-year-old girl, who was 16 when she held up a smoke shop, at gun point. 

Adolescent offenders holding and using firearms at the direction of adults. Teenagers who shot people did gunpoint holdups, but now teenagers who now face prison. In a shooting involving multiple members from each gang, 10 shots were fired, and one of the gang members was killed, allegedly, by someone from his own crew.  

This is a lost generation. These defendants are accused of committing crimes over a four-year period from May 2021 to last month. The guns on this table were used in an ongoing battle between Thirdside and 9RAQ, gangs that put the lives of innocent people at risk for no reason, just violence for the sake of it.  

In social media posts and drill rap videos, they speak of their crimes, such as a post on May 5th of this year in which a Thirdside member details his involvement in a March 30th, 2025 incident. At 2 o'clock in the afternoon on Morris Avenue and East 167th Street, near the site of a middle school, when his gang fired 17 shots at rivals. He says, “I don't know how we missed them.” Yes, they missed hitting their rivals, but a 22-year-old man driving by the corner, in his car, was grazed in the head by one of those bullets.  

On August 2nd, 2022, on Finley Avenue, the two gangs exchanged several shots. One struck a 34 year-old bystander in the lower back. Another 2022 shooting left a 75 year-old man wounded in the thigh. What we saw in this investigation is that in some of these shootings, adult gang members passed loaded weapons to adolescent and juvenile gang members and instructed them to shoot.  

Youth are shooting people right here, right outside our very courthouses. They turned 161st Street, two blocks from Yankee Stadium, into a war zone, right outside this building we're talking about. Thankfully, the 4-4 precinct, members of my Bronx DA and NYPD squad, and the detective investigator squads in my office, and the court officers in Supreme Criminal and Family Court are doing a tremendous job to stop the violence.  

The precinct established a fixed post and pole cameras out here to help assist them in that work. The mentality on the street is that nothing happens to those under 18 who possess or use a gun. This is the biggest challenge for us right now, and it's an unintended consequence of the Raise the Age law.  

The Raise the Age law increased the age of criminal responsibility to 18 and established a youth part in the Supreme Court. It was the right decision to do that, as New York was only one of two of the last states to treat 16-year-old youth as adults.  

However, we've seen 16 and 17 year-olds, as well as now 13, 14, and 15 year-olds with multiple gun cases and other violent crimes that are not held responsible when they're going to family court. They're arrested for gun possession, released without proper supervision, and they graduate to a fatal shooting, or they are killed by another youth with a gun.  

We need to make some common-sense adjustments to the Raise the Age law, such as changing display to possess for weapons charges so that that can halt kids before they pull out a gun and pull the trigger. But even more, we need resources directed toward violence prevention and the interdiction of firearms.  

I first spoke about this in 2021, and I'm going to keep speaking about it. I don't want to continue to have press conferences about shootings and gang takedowns. I want to announce other tangible solutions to gun violence, which includes all Bronx stakeholders, not just prosecutors and police. Until we do this, each year the people arrested with guns are younger and younger. This must end.  

At this time, I'll ask Mayor Adams to say a few words.  

Mayor Eric Adams: Thank you so much, D.A. Clark, for just your continuous approach to this public safety concern that we're facing right now, something that we embrace in the administration. It must be intervention and prevention. If we don't do them both together, we will be in a perpetual cycle.  

I feel like this is Groundhog Day. We were just here, a few months ago, talking about a gang takedown and so it's clear that this office and NYPD are collaborating together to make sure those who are committing these crimes are brought to justice, but D.A. Clark is right. That cannot be the answer because there's an endless flow of young people who believe as though they don't have a stake in the tomorrows so, they are creating a reckless disregard on our streets.  

And when a bullet leaves the pathway of a gun it often hits an unattended target like the gentleman who was in the car and grazed in the head. We see it over and over again, but we cannot disregard what Albany did to our public safety apparatus.  

We saw this during the late 70s and early 80s on drug possession. Adults turned over drugs to young people because the crime was not severe and they used the young people as mules and they used them in a manner which allowed drugs to really move throughout our entire city. Now we're seeing it with guns.  

As the D.A. Clark pointed out, some of the videos show adults handing the guns to young people and allowing the young people to carry out the crime. When we had a valid attempt to correct draconian laws, we have unintended consequences that we have to be honest and bold enough to go back to Albany, just as we did with the discovery law, just as we did with bail. We have to now examine what Raise the Age is actually doing on the streets.  

What it’s doing, Raise the Age has lowered the age of young people who are using guns and the victims who are getting younger and younger every day. We saw here in the Bronx a 14 year-old young person took the life of a 16 year-old. The numbers don't lie. We can't be so idealistic that we're not realistic. Crime is real and these gang takedowns are involving younger and younger people.  

And then it's more than that. I want to thank the D.A. for having our court officers that are here. Our court officers, our detectives, our other law enforcement apparatus coming together with the district attorney in the NYPD to ensure that, we say over and over again, the prerequisite to our prosperity would always be public safety and public safety is our North Star.  

When you have violent acts taking place in front of the buildings that we consider the symbol of our public safety, you're seeing a total erosion of the foundation of what makes us safe in the first place. For court officers to have to ensure that individuals who are entering the court that they're not carrying guns, razors, knives, hiding them in their mouths, creating violence within the courtroom itself. We need to be as loud as we are when we see other injustices take place in the courthouse.  

We cannot be one sided on public safety in the proper use of our court facilities. That's where justice is sought. That is not where criminals are supposed to participate in fighting and reckless behavior. So we are proud to be here with the D.A. It is imperative that we take down these crews and gangs.  

But it's also imperative that there is a proactive plan to prevent this. It goes with what we're doing in our administration with justice involved young people. But it's also time for Albany to go back and reexamine the Raise the Age law so we don't continue to see the lowering of age of victims and those who are committing the crime. District attorney, thank you and your team for what you have accomplished. 

District Attorney Clark: Thank you. Commissioner Tisch. 

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch: Good morning, everyone. Today, thanks to the work of the NYPD’s Gun Violence Suppression Division and of course our partners in the Bronx District Attorney's Office, we are announcing the takedown of 20 violent gang members who, for years, have driven shootings, stabbings and robberies across the Bronx. Last week we arrested 16 and the NYPD’s warrant squad is working around the clock to bring in the other four.  

New York City is on pace to close the first half of 2025 with the lowest number of shootings in recorded history. Why? Well it's in no small part because of cases just like this. Because of precision policing, relentless follow up and targeted enforcement against the small number of people driving the violence.  

The Gun Violence Suppression Division alone has carried out eight major case takedowns so far this year. That is the most ever for that unit in a six month span. This investigation, dubbed Operation Double Trouble, centered on two aligned street crews. 9RAQ, a Bloods affiliated gang who operated in the Claremont community of the Bronx and Thirdside, a primarily Crips affiliated gang who operated in and around the Belmont community.  

While these crews might represent historically rival affiliations, they were closely aligned by a shared set of enemies. They weren't trying to stay off the radar either. They promoted their lifestyle openly on the internet releasing drill music laced with violent references, flashing illegal firearms and using their rap platforms to taunt rivals.  

Together these crews are charged in 13 shootings, one of them a murder. They're also charged in three robberies, including one that ended in the stabbing. One day, in particular, highlights their pension for wreaking havoc in our city. On September 25th, 2022, on a busy stretch of East 180th, in the middle of the afternoon, a 75 year-old man was shot through the hip. The gunmen were masked, riding an illegal scooter and they fired while driving by a moving MTA bus that was full of passengers.  

But, they were not done. 15 minutes later, the same crew, same scooter, same gun opened fire into a playground full of children in Olinville. Their access to guns turned neighborhood disputes into deadly battlegrounds. Over the course of the investigations, we removed 15 illegal firearms from these defendants.  

They also had access to illegal scooters, which, as we see so often with these crews, were used as tools of violent crime. Just last week, we crushed several hundred such mopeds and scooters, just a fraction of the 62,000-plus that we have seized since Mayor Adams took office. These vehicles are used to evade police and carry out shootings in broad daylight.  

Most alarmingly, four of these youths were already charged with attempted murder for shootings when they were 15 or 16 years old. One of them has allegedly pulled the trigger at least four times. These aren't kids who just made one mistake. The takeaway is clear.  

As the D.A. so eloquently said, our Raise the Age law needs to be reexamined because it removed the criminal consequences that prevent teens from escalating violence until they or their rivals are either dead or facing adult sentences.  

Since Raise the Age went into effect, the number of shooters and shooting victims under the age of 18 has doubled. It's unacceptable. Until we fix the rules for prosecuting violent teens, outstanding police work, like what we see here today, cannot end this cycle of violence. And again, the NYPD's criminal group database was a vital tool in helping investigators untangle the affiliations and the rivalries that drove this case.  

And now, in one coordinated takedown, we were able to remove nearly half the known members of these two gangs from the street. That's how precision policing works, and it is exactly why calls to eliminate the criminal group database by the City Council are not just misinformed, they're dangerous. Operation Double Trouble wasn't just a one-day action. It was a long-term case built through tireless, methodical detective work.  

I want to thank all the members of the Gun Violence Suppression Division for their incredible work on this case. Great job. I also want to thank Mayor Adams, New York City's public safety mayor, not only for giving us the tools and the backing to get this job done, but for making it clear, from day one, that keeping New Yorkers safe isn't just a priority, it's the foundation of everything we do.  

Mayor Adams was talking about these criminal justice laws up in Albany, before anyone else was speaking about them, and he has led the charge there. I also want to thank Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and her team for their incredible partnership, because cases like this make it very clear that we refuse to let violence define the Bronx. Thank you so much. 

District Attorney Clark: We're going to show a video at this time. 

[Video Plays.] 

Question: [Inaudible.] 

Police Commissioner Tisch: I wouldn't say this year to last year. The big change came after Raise the Age went into effect. So, the years that we compare is the full year 2018 versus the full year 2024. So, since Raise the Age went into effect, the number of shooters and shooting victims under the age of 18 has doubled. So, this is a consequence of policy and law changes having a very tangible, undeniable effect. 

[Crosstalk.] 

Police Commissioner Tisch: Our summer policies? Oh, sure. I can– 

Question: [Inaudible.] 

Police Commissioner Tisch: So, our summer violence reduction plan is in effect. It's been in effect since May 5th, and the early results of it are really extraordinary. And the mayor is going to brief you on those results at the end of the month. But what it is, is precision policing.  

So, we've taken between 1,500 and 2,000 additional cops, and we have put them on street corners across the city, but in particular in places where we know that violence occurs. And unfortunately, a huge percentage of those cops are deployed right here in the borough of the Bronx. We work very closely with the D.A. to identify the locations where we want to deploy the cops, but it has shown extraordinary results bringing shootings down in those deployment areas over 60 percent. 

District Attorney Clark: As far as my office is concerned, of course, you know, we're doing the prosecution, and we're working in partnership with NYPD, but also other community stakeholders. The clergy is very much involved. We're getting the Borough President's Office with the Division of Youth and Community Development, the Summer Youth Employment Program is a key to this. Getting jobs to some of these young people is key. If they could have a job, they could not think about the violence.  

We have the Saturday Night Lights program and we have a number of community centers and schools that are open on Saturday night. And thank you to the mayor now, they're going to be on Sundays as well. So it'll be Saturday and Sunday. I know the Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry announced that earlier this year. We're doing a number of things.  

I also developed a Youth Justice Bureau in order to really look at the prosecutions that we're doing, as well as the investigations that we're bringing in order to make sure that we're holding these youth accountable, but at the same time figuring out those preventive measures we can do, as well as intervention to stop them from picking up the guns.  

Everybody wants me to talk about alternatives to incarceration. If we're talking about alternatives to incarceration, that's too late. They've already committed the crime. We have to talk about alternatives to violence, and that's jobs, that's housing, that's the schools and just programming for them to do better. If they see better they'll do better and that's what we're trying to do, partner up in that way.  

Any other questions? 

Question: [Inaudible.] 

District Attorney Clark: It's not an exception. There was already a law. Raise the Age dealt with 16 and 17 year-olds. Before that, we had juvenile delinquency laws and juvenile offenders that dealt with those 13 year-olds and above that commit serious crimes like murder and things like that. Those laws are still on the books. And they automatically—a D.A. can automatically retain those cases in the Supreme Court if they commit those crimes.  

However, for 16 and 17-year-olds, now there's a responsibility for me to be able to prove that they should stay in the Supreme Court because the Raise the Age law now has made it presumptive that 16 and 17-year-olds belong in the family court. So there's just a lot of things that need to be fixed on laws that involve juveniles altogether. And that's what we're talking about.  

We really need to have a look back. Governor Cuomo then signed it into law in ‘17 and it took effect in ‘18 and ‘19. But we have seen the results of it, which should have been foreseeable that if you change the laws, adults are going to hand the guns to those who are younger. And those who are younger are actually doing it, but now they have the mindset that it's okay for them to do it.  

The mentality is that there's no consequences. So that's why we really, really, really need to have a look back. I've been in conversations with the Office of Court Administration, the judges, the governor, legislators. We need now to have a look back at Raise the Age.  

Any other questions?  

Mayor Adams: Just want to do a quick update on the weather. You know, summer is here and we are truly concerned about the weather, particularly those older adults and those with weather related health issues and. So we're telling folks to stay indoors, if you can. Utilize a place where there's an air conditioner. And we are opening our cooling centers.  

The National Weather Service has put out a hot weather advisory and we want to make sure this is through Tuesday. So if you have to go outdoors, go outdoors when it's cooler, but, as was indicated, we know that when the weather gets warmer, that is a traditional way where crime seems to increase. We're going to do everything possible on our end to make sure that trend does not continue, but we just want New Yorkers to be conscious about the weather. Thank you.  

District Attorney Clark: Alright. Thank you everyone.