Photo courtesy of CBS News.
Thirty-three-year-old Shatavia Walls was executed by Ninedee Gang members on July 7, 2020, as she walked through the Pink Houses housing project where she lived in Brooklyn, New York.
According to the New York Post, she was taken to the hospital, where she died 10 days after.
Twenty-year-old Quintin Green, Chayanne Fernandez, 21, and Maliek Miller, 27, were arrested for the murder. The trio was charged on August 9, 2021.
Walls had been shot in 2019 by a gang member and was labeled a “rat” after she testified for the federal government against the Loopy Gang. Later, flyers were posted around her apartment complex, calling her a “snitch.”
Prosecutors say that Walls was murdered by the Ninedee Gang, an affiliation of the Loopy Gang, after Walls asked them not to set off fireworks in the complex on July 4, a few days before she was shot. Miller, a member of the Ninedees gang, reportedly fired a shot into the air and called Walls a “snitch” after her request. Law enforcement officials believe that the gang members plotted murder after the fireworks incident.
Green and an unnamed underage accomplice waited for Walls at the Pink Houses for several hours so they could kill her. The two changed their clothes several times to avoid being recognizable. After Walls left her apartment around 9:25 p.m., Green tried to shoot Walls from behind but missed and shot a bystander (he survived). Walls ran in the opposite direction as Green kept firing at her. She unknowingly ran towards the underage assailant, who also opened fire on Walls. Green then caught Walls and shot her behind a building.
Another suspect named Kevin Wint, 27, was charged as an accessory after the fact because he helped the murderers hide in Queens after they killed Walls.
Green, Fernandez and Miller are all facing life in prison or the death penalty. Wint could do 20 years in prison if he is convicted of racketeering and an additional 15 for being an accessory after the murder.
FBI Acting Assistant Director-in-Charge Jacqueline Maguire said that the case should warn criminals who believe they are invincible.
“This investigation serves as a warning to criminals who behave as if there are no consequences to their actions,” she said. “We have the ability in the federal criminal justice system to put these violent gang members away for a long time, and we will persist in our efforts to get them off the streets. It is our hope that today’s charges against members of the Ninedee Gang bring some solace to the family of Shatavia Walls as we seek justice for her senseless, cold-blooded murder.”