A 25-year-old Bloods member has been charged federally for his role in a gang-related mass shooting at a Brooklyn lounge that left three dead in August, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Elijah Roy, 25, a reputed member of the 5-9 Brims, a subset of the Bloods, was busted Wednesday and charged with firing off a barrage of bullets at members of the rival Folk Nation Gangster Disciples, who returned fire, inside Taste of the City Lounge on Franklin Ave. in Crown Heights on Aug. 17.
Wild video released by federal prosecutors shows more than 40 shots fired in just six seconds as patrons fall to the ground and scramble for the exit. A man the feds identify as Roy can be seen ducking and running, then firing twice as he falls to the ground.
The three dead include Brims member Marvin St. Louis, 19, who cops say sparked the shooting with a derogatory hand sign and a fusillade of first shots, Folk Nation gang member Jamel Childs, 35, who fired back, and 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, who police believe was a bystander.
Roy, who also goes by “Eli Spice” and “Swervo,” is charged with assault in aid of racketeering and felon in possession of ammunition. He was ordered held without bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Federal Court Wednesday afternoon.
Two other as-yet-uncharged suspects were named alongside Roy in a criminal complaint released Wednesday, although their identities and details about their involvement in the case have been redacted.
The complaint lays out a timeline of what sparked the violence in the bar and hookah lounge.
Folk Nation members started hanging out at the club as early as 1:30 a.m., with Childs and one of his associates going inside by 2:15 a.m., the feds allege.
Their rivals, including St. Louis and Roy, started to show up around 2:30 a.m., and made their way inside, the feds said.
A neon sign in one corner of the bar blared the message, “Stop Thinking, Start Drinking!”
The trouble began in earnest about 45 minutes later, when St. Louis flashed a “small-b” hand sign, meant to signal the 5-9 Brims, followed by a Folk Nation hand sign, the feds said. Signing like that was apparently meant as an insult, and Childs walked up to him. The two had words, and Childs returned to his group.
Then, seven minutes later, around 3:22 a.m., St. Louis, Roy and a third person conferred, and St. Louis ran toward Childs and started shooting.
The video shows Childs, St. Louis, Roy and two others opening fire before Roy and one of his accomplices make it out of the bar, guns in hand, the feds said.
As news of the shooting spread, Roy switched cell-phone numbers, shaved his head and headed for New Jersey, then hopped a bus to North Carolina, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dana Rehnquist said.
He had $7,000 cash on him when authorities caught up with him in North Carolina on Sept. 18, the feds allege.
Roy smiled and nodded at his mother, wife and children in the courtroom audience, and his mom mouthed the words, “I love you.” During the arraignment, he rocked back and forth and repeatedly made the sign of the of the cross with his hands, kissing his thumb as he did.
Rehnquist called the shooting “brazen,” and pointed out that Roy was carrying a gun, even though he had been sentenced to more than three years behind bars for a 2018 weapon possession and conspiracy conviction in Brooklyn. She called the bar “known gang territory,” and said Roy chose to go there with a gun.
“Taste of the City lounge was filled with dozens of customers. They were enjoying their Saturday night out in the city … when in six seconds over 40 gunshots were fired,” Rehnquist said. “There were people stumbling over each other to escape the violence unleashed by the defendant and other individuals.”
Roy’s lawyer, Mehdi Essmidi, argued that he should be released on home detention, telling Magistrate Judge Peggy Kuo that the video was hard to make out because of effects added by the prosecution.
“It looks like a movie. You can’t tell what’s real and what’s not real,” he said. “My client is on the floor, facing the ceiling… It looks like he may have shot one time on the floor when he was scared, but I can’t see that.”
The defense attorney admitted that he was only able to review the video once before the proceeding, saying, “It’s hard for me to piece it together from viewing it once.”
Kuo agreed with the prosecution, ordering Roy held without bail.
“As alleged, the defendant and other associates of a violent gang unleashed gunfire in the middle of a crowded bar, creating a killing zone that, in a matter of seconds, left three people dead and 10 victims wounded,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday. “Such a flagrant disregard for human life will not go unpunished and this prosecution underscores the resolve of our office and law enforcement to eradicate gangs in the district.”
Originally Published: October 1, 2025 at 1:53 PM EDT
