North Philadelphia street group ‘BNG’ members have been charged in multiple shootings

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday announced charges against four young men affiliated with a North Philadelphia street group that investigators say committed a string of shootings in 2021 that left two people dead and five others injured.

Following a more than year-long investigation, prosecutors charged four men they say are affiliated with the group “BNG” or “Big Naddy Gang” — named after a 15-year-old boy known as “Naddy” who was fatally shot in April 2021.

After the teen was killed, prosecutors said, his friends — seeking retaliation and local notoriety — formed BNG and committed at least five shootings in the next six months, chronicling the violence along the way on social media, in rap songs, and in texts to one another.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said Tuesday that the young men wrote in one text that they “put the ‘h’ in homicide.”

“Today, we’re going to put the ‘j’ in jail,” the DA said.

“We’ve had enough of the shootings, killings, blood, and juveniles on both sides of the gun,” he said.

The first shooting detectives tied to the men to occurred July 14, 2021, when prosecutors say Dontae Sutton, then 17, critically wounded two young men in a shooting on the 2400 block of North 33rd Street in Strawberry Mansion.

A few months later, prosecutors say, Jamir Brunson-Gans, 18 at the time, shot a 43-year-old man multiple times, leaving him critically injured, on the 3100 block of North Judson Street on Sept. 5, 2021.

The next day, prosecutors said, Brunson-Gans alongside then-16-year-old Elijah Soto, went to the 2200 block of West Huntingdon Street and fatally shot 19-year-old Jordan Murray.

And not even two weeks later, prosecutors say, Sutton and Soto, with then-17-year-old Khalil Henry fatally shot Jerrick Jenkins, 33, in North Philadelphia, at 29th and West York Streets.

Then, on Oct. 4, 2021, prosecutors say, Sutton and Henry, riding in a car they had stolen the day before, shot two people on the 2800 block of North 26th Street.

Brunson-Gans and Soto have each been charged with murder, attempted murder, and related crimes.

Henry has been charged with murder, two counts of attempted murder, and related offenses.

Sutton has been charged with murder, four counts of attempted murder, and many additional crimes.

Court records do not list lawyers for any of the four.

Henry and Sutton were arrested earlier this year and charged with the October shooting, and were in custody when the latest charges were brought this week. Soto had been in custody since March, when he was arrested on drug and gun charges.

This is the third sprawling indictment of a Philadelphia street group in just the last six months, as the District Attorney’s Office, in partnership with local and federal police, try to crack down on the numerous street groups across Philadelphia.

Those groups — which prosecutors call gangs, a label sometimes contested by community members given the groups’ small size and fluid structure and membership — are often made up of a small group of friends, mostly young men, largely from the same neighborhood. Many are involved in the drill rap scene, and their music and social media posts often chronicle — and fuel — shootings, authorities say.

» READ MORE: In West Philly, best friends were shot over an Instagram feud they had nothing to do with

Assistant District Attorney Joseph Lanuti, who led the investigation with the Gun Violence Task Force, said the people the men shot were not members of rival groups, as investigators say they typically see, and it was unclear why they were shot.

“The motives are varied,” Lanuti said at a news conference. But the group, he said, “sought notoriety, they sought infamy, they sought attention.”

Previously, Brunson-Gans was arrested in August 2022 and charged with two counts of illegal gun possession after he drove a shooting victim to the hospital, and police later found two guns in his car, according to court records. One of the weapons had an obliterated serial number, and the other had been reported stolen from West Virginia in 2016, the records say.

He was scheduled for a jury trial in that case in July.

Soto was arrested in January 2022 and charged with conspiracy and simple assault after court records say he and three others attacked, kicked, and stabbed a juvenile. A court spokesperson said the adult charges against Soto were withdrawn and the case was transferred to juvenile court.

Most recently, Soto was arrested in March 2023 after he was found in the Hunting Park section of the city carrying large quantities of cocaine and a gun, which, according to court records, he was prohibited from carrying because of a previous juvenile adjudication.

Lanuti said that although the task force investigations into group violence take time, they ultimately bring justice.

“If you are in a gang committing gun violence in Philadelphia, don’t be surprised if you’re next,” he said.