Two men found guilty of leading violent Frankford gang whose members went on to kill Philly Police Cpl. James O’Connor IV

Two men accused of leading a violent Frankford drug gang that committed a string of shootings and homicides — including the fatal shooting of Philadelphia SWAT Cpl. James O’Connor IV in 2020 — were found guilty by a jury Tuesday of crimes including racketeering and murder.

Kelvin Jimenez and Dominique Parker were not accused of participating in — or even being present for — O’Connor’s killing, which occurred when he and other SWAT officers were attempting to serve an arrest warrant inside a Frankford apartment for a younger member of the gang who was wanted for murder.

But prosecutors said Jimenez and Parker were still leaders who called the shots for the group known as SG1700 — that they helped supply drugs and weapons to younger members, tried to help members avoid apprehension, and in Parker’s case, took part in shootings targeting rival gangs. Because the case was brought as a racketeering conspiracy, Jimenez and Parker were charged in connection with four murders, including O’Connor’s, along with 13 shootings, and a host of drug and firearms offenses.

“These were men that were working together — they were working together to benefit themselves and the group they were a part of,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Stram said during the monthlong trial. “It was a coordinated effort with a common goal: To sell drugs and to advance their goals of the SG1700 enterprise.”

Two of their accused associates pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this year and are scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Juan Sánchez this spring. Prosecutors recommended that Hassan Elliott, the man who shot O’Connor, receive a sentence of between 55 and 75 years, and that Khalif Sears — who was with Elliott when O’Connor was shot and participated in other acts of violence — face a sentence of 35 to 50 years.

By taking their case to trial, Jimenez and Parker could get the stiffest sentences of all — even though they were accused of committing far fewer acts of violence than their codefendants. Each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Stram, the prosecutor, told jurors that as gang leaders, Jimenez and Parker “benefited directly from the actions of younger gang members in that group — younger members that they cultivated, younger members that they recruited. This is true even in instances where they themselves didn’t get their hands dirty.”

The sequence of events that led to their arrests began five years ago. Elliott and Sears were arrested on the morning of March 13, 2020, shortly after O’Connor was killed inside an apartment building on the 1600 block of Bridge Street.

SWAT officers had gone there to arrest Elliott for the 2019 slaying of Tyrone Tyree on the 5300 block of Duffield Street. Authorities had issued arrest warrants months earlier for Elliott and Sears in connection with that crime. Stram, the prosecutor, told jurors that when members of SG1700 found out about the warrants, Jimenez agreed to let Elliott and Sears stay at the Bridge Street apartment as they tried to avoid arrest.

But by March 2020, police had begun zeroing in on Elliott. And as SWAT officers sought him out and climbed a flight of stairs inside his apartment building, Elliott grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and began shooting through a bedroom door, striking O’Connor in the neck and arm.

O’Connor was taken to Temple University Hospital, where he was declared dead that morning. He was a son and father of city police officers, his daughter was in the Air Force, and he had also recently become a grandfather.

Elliott was taken into custody, along with Sears and two other men who were inside the apartment. Police found 10 guns in the room, as well as crack cocaine and drug packaging materials, prosecutors said.

The case became controversial almost immediately. Then-U.S. Attorney William McSwain blamed District Attorney Larry Krasner for O’Connor’s death, in part because Krasner’s office had dropped a drug case against Elliott a year before O’Connor was shot.

Krasner responded by saying the fate of the narcotics case was not significant because his office by then had already approved Elliott’s more-serious murder warrant.

McSwain later filed federal charges against Elliott and the three others who were inside the Frankford apartment when he shot O’Connor, accusing them of murder, possessing illegal weapons, and dealing drugs.

And three years after that, McSwain’s successor, then-U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero, announced an expanded racketeering case against Elliott, Sears, Jimenez, and Parker.

In addition to O’Connor’s murder, the men were charged with killing Kaseem Rogers on Dec. 3, 2018; Tyree on March 1, 2019; and Dontae Walker on Aug. 22, 2019. Two of the murders were attempts to target members of rival gangs, prosecutors said, while Tyree’s killing was a botched robbery. In two instances, prosecutors said, Elliott and Mitchell coordinated their actions with Jimenez.

Attorneys for Jimenez and Parker had argued to the jury that the accusations were built largely on the word of other gang members whose testimony should not be trusted.

Jimenez’s attorney, Thomas Fitzpatrick, told jurors that the prosecution was “an exercise in overreaching” by the government, while Parker’s attorney, Michael Parkinson, said the trial’s key witnesses were “going to lie to get a good deal” in their own cases.

Both defendants are now scheduled to be sentenced by Sánchez in July.