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Third teen arrested in killing of rapper and West Philly gang leader Abdul Vicks

Naier Briscoe, 19, has been charged with killing Abdul Vicks, the face of a West Philadelphia-based gang known as YBC.

Philadelphia police investigate the shooting of Abdul Vicks, 25, on Aug. 23, 2023.
Philadelphia police investigate the shooting of Abdul Vicks, 25, on Aug. 23, 2023.Read moreElizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer

A third teenager has been charged in the high-profile killing of a West Philadelphia-based rapper and gang leader this summer.

Naier Briscoe, 19, was taken into custody Wednesday night to face charges of murder and related crimes for his alleged role in killing 25-year-old Abdul Vicks, also known as YBC Dul, in a drive-by shooting in August.

Briscoe also faces a second murder charge in connection with another shooting just days before he killed Vicks, police said. In the early morning of Aug. 19, police said, Briscoe and others fired more than two dozen rounds into a car full of teenagers on the 200 block of East Duncannon Street in Olney, according to police. Marquise Saunders, 16, was shot in the head and killed, while another 16-year-old was critically wounded.

His arrest follows those of Aiden Waters, 16, in September and Rashawn Williams, 18, the following month. Waters is also charged in the Duncannon Street shooting, as well as a third shooting the day before, in which a 14-year-old and a 43-year-old man were injured.

Law enforcement officials said the three teens are associated with a street group from Olney known as “Fastbreak” and targeted Vicks in part because of his fame as a local rapper. Vicks, better known as “Mr. Disrespectful,” was the main face of a Mantua-based gang known as the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC.

Vicks had built a name for himself in the city’s drill rap scene, particularly for his cutthroat lyrics that often mocked the people killed by his gang and others, and even their families. His signature line in many of his songs was: “I don’t give a f— who you is, I will disrespect you.”

Because of this, he built a long list of enemies, including, apparently, the young men of Fastbreak.

On the afternoon of Aug. 23, police said, Vicks was driving with one of his friends on the 100 block of West Olney Avenue. As he slowed to a stop at a red light, a white car pulled up alongside his and at least two people fired shots into the vehicle, striking him multiple times in the hand and chest, according to police.

Vicks’ friend rushed him to Einstein Medical Center, where he died shortly afterward.

The night Vicks was killed, police said, they recovered the shooters’ getaway car on the 6900 block of North 15th Street. The car — which had been stolen in Cheltenham Township a week earlier — had been burned, but detectives recovered ballistic evidence inside, as well as a series of fingerprints along the doors, prosecutors said.

Those fingerprints and bullet casings — as well as witness interviews, social media posts, surveillance footage, and jail calls — ultimately helped lead detectives to the three teens.