West Philly street group members charged for their roles in five different shootings

Philadelphia law enforcement officials on Monday announced the arrests of multiple members of a West Philadelphia street group they say are responsible for a string of shootings last year that left three people dead and injured at least six others.

Following a nearly two-year investigation, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said it has charged five people — and issued warrants for the arrests of three others — for their roles in trafficking guns and committing at least five separate shootings as part of retaliatory action against other West Philadelphia groups last year.

Anthony Lacey-Woodson, 20, and Jalen Mickens, 21, were arrested Thursday and charged with murder and related crimes in the deaths of Sircarr Johnson Jr. and Salahaldin Mahmoud, who were fatally shot during a July 4 barbecue last year.

The young men were gathered with their friends and family on 60th Street, celebrating the opening of Johnson’s new clothing store, when prosecutors say Lacey-Woodson, Mickens, and two others emerged from a car and fired more than 100 bullets into the store.

Johnson Jr., 24, and Mahmoud, 21, were killed, and a 16-year-old girl was wounded.

Lacey-Woodson and Mickens, affiliated with the street group “02da4,” were targeting a member of the rival gang “524″ and opened fire on the party, said Jeffrey Palmer, an assistant district attorney with the Gun Violence Task Force, which headed the investigation.

Johnson and Mahmoud had no affiliation with the groups and were caught in the cross fire, Palmer said.

Prosecutors said Lacey-Woodson and Mickens were also responsible for the killing of 15-year-old Antonio Walker Jr., who was fatally shot last March while playing basketball with his cousin on the 5200 block of Pentridge Street. Nasir Wells, 21, is also wanted on murder charges for his alleged involvement in that shooting, but remains at large.

Lacey-Woodson and Mickens were denied bail and remain in custody. Court records did not list attorneys for them.

Friends and family described Walker as a talented track star and well-liked student. Prosecutors said he was not affiliated with the gangs and was potentially targeted in a case of mistaken identity.

The rash of violence was part of ongoing feuds between allied West Philly street groups “02da4″ and “FSB,” and their rivals, who often use social media and music videos to trade insults and mock rival members who have recently died or been injured in shootings, Palmer said.

Prosecutors believe Lacey-Woodson and Mickens were also the gunmen in a shooting last April that left two people injured on the 1600 block of South 54th Street, and a separate shooting on the 6000 block of Walton Avenue.

Tyheed Cooper, 34, and Fabian Creary, 21, were also arrested and charged with multiple crimes in connection with a shooting on Jan. 16, 2021. Cooper, Creary, and Wells allegedly shot into a party on the 3800 block of Parrish Street, injuring a woman.

Cooper remains in custody on $1 million bail, and his lawyer could not immediately be reached. Creary is in custody in Delaware County, and will face charges in Philadelphia once transferred.

Johnson’s mother, Pamela Owensby, burst into tears Monday morning upon learning from a reporter that her son’s alleged killers had been arrested, saying she’d been waiting for this day but worried it might never come. She said she still cries over his death almost every day.

“I thought they forgot about him. I really, really did,” Owensby said. “I just kept praying to my son like, please, I just can’t keep letting this go on and on and on. I feel some justice.”

Lennora Mahmoud said she has remained hopeful over the last 18 months that her son’s killers would be brought to justice, and was grateful for the police work that went into his case. Now, she said, she hopes that the evidence against them holds up in court.

“I hope they all get life in prison,” she said. “I don’t care how old they are, they don’t deserve to come out.”

“I pray that no mother has to experience this pain,” she said. “It’s a pain like no other.”

State Sen. Sharif Street, Mahmoud’s uncle, said he’s grateful the men were apprehended, adding that the killers displayed “reckless abandon” by firing dozens of bullets into a crowd. Street said Mahmoud, whom family called “Lala,” was a “young man with a lot of promise.”

”Each and every person who is shot has a story, a personalized individual story, just like Lala did,” he said. “They’re not just numbers.”

Lacey-Woodson was also charged as part of an alleged straw purchasing conspiracy, as was Kimberly Johnson, 48, who was charged with straw purchasing and weapons offenses for buying two firearms at a gun show outside of Philadelphia, and then giving them to her son, Amir Johnson, Palmer said.

One of the guns Kimberly Johnson purchased was recovered by Philadelphia Police after they pulled Amir Johnson over for a traffic stop, and confiscated the weapon. A ballistics test traced the gun to an April 2021 shooting on the 1100 block of Divinity Street.

Prosecutors charged Ahmir Johnson, 20, with attempted murder for that shooting and he remains a fugitive, Palmer said. His mother is in custody, being held on $1 million bail. Her lawyer couldn’t immediately be reached.

Calvin Gatewood, 25, who prosecutors said purchased guns for Lacey-Woodson, was charged with four counts of violating the Uniform Firearms Act and is also on the run, authorities said.

Although investigators have long known of the groups affiliated with the violence, the long investigation was “painstaking,” with investigators poring through phone records and tracing shell casings back to straw purchasers of guns like Gatewood and Johnson using the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, said Palmer.

Once investigators found Gatewood and Johnson, they were able to link the guns they had purchased to Lacey-Woodson and Amir Johnson and to the shootings they carried out, he said.

The District Attorney’s Office said investigators suspect more shootings in the past year are linked to the ongoing dispute between the West Philadelphia-based groups, but declined to provide specifics.

Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.