Police: Gang Member Released Without Bail Commits 3 More Drive-By Shootings

Brooklyn, NY – A Brooklyn gang member who was released without bail on an attempted murder charge went on to commit at least three drive-by shootings before he was arrested again on Friday.

Police said 23-year-old Darrius Sutton was arrested on May 20 in connection with a shooting in an East New York apartment building courtyard on May 16, the New York Post reported.

Sutton, a known member of the Bloods gang who also uses the alias “Blizz Meecho,” was charged with attempted murder, assault with intent to cause injury, and criminal possession of a weapon, FOX News reported.

Then he was released without bail later the same day.

The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said their only witness had recanted, according to the New York Post.

“At the time of arraignment, the sole eyewitness had recanted so we did not have sufficient evidence to keep the defendant in custody,” a spokesman for Brooklyn district attorney said in a statement. “The investigation is continuing and we hope other witnesses come forward.”

Prosecutors said Sutton appeared in a hip-hop music video, uploaded to YouTube, for the song “Crime Rate” by Brooklyn Rapper BK Eaz a few days after he was released in May, the New York Post reported.

The video praised recent skyrocketing crime rates in New York City.

In the song, rapper Billy DntShootEm referred to Sutton’s alias – “Blizz Meecho” – and made a gun with his hand, the New York Post reported.

“Meecho say get him, I got him,” he rapped.

Federal prosecutors said Sutton has participated in six drive-by shootings this year, including three that happened between July 13 and July 14, the New York Post reported.

He was caught by a surveillance camera on April 20 when he came up behind a rival gang member and shot him three times in the middle of the day, prosecutors said.

“The defendant’s violent spree over the last year has left at least seven individuals with gunshot wounds,” federal prosecutors wrote in the charging documents on July 29. “That these events did not lead to seven deaths is entirely fortuitous — the videos described above make clear that the defendant shoots to kill.”

Law enforcement officers executed a warrant for Sutton’s arrest the last week of July, the New York Post reported.

He was taken into custody at his East New York apartment and is being held in federal custody pending trial.

Sutton is facing up to 10 years in prison on federal charges of criminal possession of a weapon by a felon, the New York Post reported.

Court records showed that he was convicted of assault with intent to cause bodily injury in 2015 and was sentenced to two years in prison.