An aggressive police task force arrested a dozen violent gang members responsible for a series of shootouts over the last year on the streets of Queens, including one bullet blitz that killed an 18-year-old teen outside a McDonald’s a year ago, officials said.
The yearlong police investigation led to indictments of 12 reputed members of the Floss Money Ballers gang, whose bloody rivalry with rival Blitz Gang 4 terrorized residents from southeast Queens for more than 12 months.
Along with the arrests, authorities seized nearly two-dozen deadly firearms, including a handgun converted to a semiautomatic weapon.
“If you carry a gun, if you shoot at people on our streets, if you treat neighborhoods like war zones, we will work tirelessly to take you off the streets,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.
Officials said the young gangbangers, ranging in age from 18 to 26, were about as brazen as they come.
Prosecutors say surveillance video that captured one scary shooting on Mother’s Day this year shows a reputed gang member on Guy R. Brewer Blvd. being wounded by a rival while standing next to his grandmother in a wheelchair near NYCHA’s Baisley Park Houses in South Jamaica.
The suspected shooter in that attack, Larry Spencer, 20, faces attempted murder and reckless endangerment charges.
But the most notorious shooting during that turf war involved the death of Akim Cisse, 18, a suspected gang member who was gunned down outside a McDonald’s in Springfield Gardens in September 2024.
Cisse was eating dinner with friends in a car in the fast-food restaurant’s parking lot when a rival allegedly opened fire from the doorway of the eatery. Only Cisse, sitting in the front passenger seat, was struck.
A day later, a house in South Jamaica was targeted in retaliation and hit with three bullets, cops said. No one was injured.
Days later, cops arrested Rayvon Phillip and charged him with murder and weapons possession.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Phillip was sentenced to 21 years in jail in July.
Mayor Adams said those reckless days are done.
“The days of ‘anything goes’ are over in New York City,” Adams said. “While gangs may try to protect their territory, we are protecting our kids, our families and our communities, and every gang busted in this city means safer communities and more lives saved.”
Originally Published: September 4, 2025 at 6:29 PM EDT
