West Philly street group members charged with three shootings, including two homicides

Philadelphia law enforcement officials on Tuesday announced the arrests of four people affiliated with West Philadelphia street groups who they say are responsible for committing multiple shootings in 2021 that left two people dead.

The District Attorney’s Office, following an investigation that took longer than a year, said it has charged four people connected with the street groups known as “56st” and “524″ for their roles in the shooting deaths of two people in Southwest Philadelphia, as well as shootings that injured three others.

Roderick Williams, 23, faces charges of murder, attempted murder, and firearms violations in the shooting death of 21-year-old Michael Mines in April 2021, said Jeffrey Palmer, assistant supervisor of the District Attorney’s Office’s Gun Violence Task Force.

Williams is affiliated with “56st,” Palmer said, a group based in the Cobbs Creek neighborhood that also goes by “Christy Rec,” a reference to the nearby recreation center.

Trevon Johnson, 20, Jahsir Nelson, 18, and Kenneth Wilson, 22, were also charged with murder, attempted murder, and firearms violations after prosecutors said they committed two shootings in June 2021.

Palmer said that on June 29, the three, who are affiliated with the group “524,” jumped out of a red Honda civic and opened fire on a group of people on the 5900 block of Lansdowne Avenue, seriously wounding a 19- and 21-year-old.

Later that day, Palmer said, they drove to the 4600 block of Walnut Street and opened fire on two women sitting outside their home. Lagbeh Dorley, 36, was killed, and a 33-year-old was critically injured.

Johnson was taken into custody last week, Palmer said, while Williams, Wilson, and Nelson were already in state custody in separate cases.

» READ MORE: West Philly street group members charged for their roles in five different shootings

This is the second indictment of West Philadelphia-based street group members in six months, and part of a larger initiative in the DA’s Office to crack down on gun violence through long-term investigations that rely heavily on forensic testing, social media communications, and secret grand jury proceedings.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said Tuesday that the arrests were the result of years of forensic investigations, and came after last year’s bust of a violent West Philadelphia group called “02da4″ that was also responsible for a string of shootings in 2021.

In December, prosecutors charged five people — and issued warrants for three others — for their roles in trafficking guns and committing at least five separate shootings that left three dead and injured six others, as part of retaliatory violence with their rivals. The groups 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.

After the 02da4 arrests, he said, attention turned toward associated groups such as 56st, a close ally of 02da4.

Palmer said that after the December bust, 02da4 membership was dwindling and members of that group and 56st had formed a new group called “CCK” that was comprised of remaining affiliates.

One member, Williams, was responsible for the April 2021 killing of Mines, according to Palmer. After Mines was found dead of multiple gunshot wounds to the head in the driver’s seat of his Jeep Cherokee — which had been set on fire — on South 55th Street, detectives used shell casings found at the scene to connect the homicide to Williams.

Friends and family described Mines as a class clown who excelled in sports while mastering quieter pursuits such as chess and video games.

“He was like a people magnet. He didn’t judge anyone,” Mines’ mother, Selenia, told the Philadelphia Obituary Project. “It’s beyond just having a heart. He had an uncanny way for caring for people.”

Palmer said detectives used shell casings and surveillance to tie the three men affiliated with 524 — a rival of “CCK” — to the two June shootings. Palmer added that about twenty 7mm shell casings were found between both areas, bullets he described as Soviet-style that are typically fired from AK47s — “not a common round” the task force encounters in Philadelphia, he said.

Additional investigative methods that led to the charges included the analysis of security footage, text messages, GPS locations, and call records, he said.

Palmer offered a stern warning for criminal offenders participating in street groups:

“We are investigating you, we are watching you, we know who you are.”