Three gang members charged in last year’s execution-style murder of a father of four outside a Bronx smoke shop plotted for days to kill him after a perceived slight outside a neighborhood store, federal officials said.
“As alleged, the defendants plotted a point-blank murder after a gang dispute and carried it out in cold blood on a busy Bronx sidewalk,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement Friday announcing the arrests.
“New Yorkers want us to do all we can to end targeted gang violence and, today, that is exactly what our office and our law enforcement partners are delivering.”
Kadin West, 23, Milan Wright, 19, and Jahrid Dawkins, 18, were captured by a joint task force consisting of NYPD officers and federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations and charged with murder for gunning down 33-year-old Ralph Herrera on Aug. 7, 2025, according to law enforcement.
The three men are members of the MacBallers, a violent street gang that had been linked to drug trafficking, neighborhood robberies and violence against rivals or anyone else who disrespected their crew, federal officials said.
The MacBallers often celebrated their criminal conduct through drill rap and music videos, the officials said.
On Aug. 5, the three suspects and other gang members got into a fight with Herrera outside a Bronx store. In the days that followed, West and Wright were overheard discussing killing Herrera in retaliation for this perceived slight.
Two days later, Dawkins was sent to shoot Herrera.
Herrera was standing outside the Exotic World smoke shop where he worked on Westchester Ave. near Morrison Ave. in Soundview when he was attacked around 10:30 p.m., said police.
Dawkins, who had the hood of his sweatshirt cinched over his face, was caught on video stepping up and shooting Herrera in the left side of the head at point-blank range.
Medics rushed the victim to Jacobi Hospital, where he died.
Herrera, whose friends called him “Chicken,” lived just around the block from where he was killed, according to officials.
Dawkins was later recorded in the same area without the hood over his face, but was identified by his shirt and sneakers, cops said.
The three suspects were hit with federal racketeering charges, conspiracy to commit murder and murder in aid of racketeering. They’re facing 20 years to life if convicted.
All three were presented in Manhattan federal court and ordered detained until their next hearing.
Police sources said Herrera had an extensive criminal history with 27 arrests, including one bust for possessing an illegal firearm.
”The defendants allegedly carried out a deliberate, point-blank killing on a Bronx sidewalk—a calculated act of gang violence that left Ralph Herrera ambushed and fatally shot in the street,” Homeland Security Investigations Acting Special Agent in Charge Pete Gizas said in a statement.
“Together with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to do whatever it takes to drive violent gangs out of our neighborhoods and protect the people we serve.”
Friends said Herrera, a Soundview native who was a huge Eminem fan, rapped under the stage name Xhixken Dondada and created a music video titled “Stolies.”
At one point, Herrera and the man who owned the studio where he recorded traveled to California, where they met Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle.
“Because of his energy, we met all these people,” his friend said.
With Molly Crane-Newman
