Harrisburg gangs’ intensifying feuds lead to fear, shootings, killings

Editor’s Note: This article contains quotes from a social media post that contains expletives.

The signs are all there.

Back and forth shootings and killings.

Armed fights at a memorial for a homicide victim and outside of her funeral.

Social media taunts and graffiti insults.

And the ultimate disrespect: stealing a murdered man’s gravestone.

Gang activity in Harrisburg appears to be spiking in recent months.

Four years ago, PennLive documented a series of daytime shootings in the city involving suspected gang members amid a feud between at least two gangs. Now, two different gangs from Allison Hill and the Southside are “beefing,” leaving neighbors terrorized and bodies on the street.

The dispute is unfolding in plain sight through posts on social media and in the lyrics of recorded rap songs, many of which also have become videos shared on YouTube.

The police killing of Kendrell Hall, 22, in downtown Harrisburg on June 9 is believed to have occurred after officers interrupted him before a planned attack against gang rivals, according to police.

Two days after Hall, known as “Hotty,” was killed, one of his rivals addressed the situation and insults against Hotty on his Facebook page: ”Wen u in this shit it’s either jail or death if it would of been one of me or my brothers … (they) would of been trolling doing the same shit (they) kno wat they did if me and my bro would of died (they) would of been smoking on us rn (right now.) But roles reversed rn so we gonna gonna keep it in da street 4Eva.”

The ambush killing of Azar Hughes July 5 outside of HMAC after a concert remains unsolved, but police are investigating possible gang motivations behind it.

Hall and Hughes were linked by investigators to the same Southside gang that has been at war with groups headquartered in Allison Hill, including TTK and the 1900 Pistol Gang, known as PG.

Those gangs are among about a dozen operating in the city or in pockets outside the city, according to Dauphin County detectives who monitor gangs as part of a task force.

They say gang members are always active, but they don’t always draw the kind of attention that recent conflicts have created.

The current tension is evident at 18th and Regina streets where a three-story vacant home on the corner is half covered with gang-related graffiti, including insults directed at their “opps,” or opponents, including the two Southside men: Hotty and Zar. They also painted their gang letters — TTK — names of rivals killed in prior years and requests to “free” their members who are imprisoned.

When PennLive visited Friday, a gang member identified by police explained the painted insults to a reporter by saying the “opps” had been spreading insults against their friend: Antoine Byers Jr., 17, who was known as 22 Blxst.

Byers Jr. was killed last month in a shooting. But police believe the fatal shooting, on Aug. 19 at 18th and Regina, was a separate conflict, unrelated to gang business.

The intersection of 18th and Regina has turned into a memorial to Byers, with growing amounts of graffiti spreading to the sidewalks, streets, fences and signs.

Harrisburg gangs

Harrisburg’s gangs don’t have national ties and instead represent mostly turf-based groups of friends, many of whom grew up together, according to police. They say there are different gangs operating on the Southside, Allison Hill, Hummel Street, Uptown and other areas.

Some gangs, including the one at 18th and Regina, are “subsets” of a larger “main gang.” The fact that the gang members often grow up together, and provide each other with respect and validation, creates a fierce loyalty that can make situations much more intense, according to Colin Zwally, a Dauphin County deputy district attorney who oversees the county’s gang task force.

Harrisburg gang members don’t wear colors, but they do use hand signs that they often flash in photos and videos. They look up to professional rappers and emulate their lyrics and behavior, including going after the “opps,” even in death, by desecrating their graves and capturing the desecration on video, said Police Commissioner Thomas Carter.

Members in a subset often try to impress members of a main gang for respect, peaceful coexistence and potential collaboration, Zwally said. Those subsets are increasingly attracting more girls into the culture.

There are Crips and Bloods gangs in the county but mostly inside prison, where inmates choose a side for protection, Zwally said. Those gangs and the motorcycle gangs are not the ones causing the most trouble. Rather, he said, the problems stem from “hybrid street gangs.”

The county’s gang task force has a court-accepted process for verifying who they believe are gang members and say they’ve validated members as young as 12 and as old as 35.

Investigators say gang members make their money through crimes, mostly selling drugs but also credit card fraud, and always carry guns. Petty disagreements can easily boil over into violent disputes.

Some recent trends have made gang activity more dangerous and harder to combat, Zwally said.

Guns are easier to get, and gang members often outfit them with devices known as switches that can turn the weapon from semi-automatic to fully automatic.

Hotty had a switch on his gun when he died, police say, and officers recovered a gun with a switch from the city’s Fourth of July celebration after masked juveniles disrupted the annual fireworks event.

Masks are socially acceptable because of the pandemic, Zwally said. Ski masks with a single wide opening for the eyes, known as “shiesty” masks, are considered a fashion statement in some circles, but young people are using them to hide their identities. It’s not uncommon to see someone wearing the full-face-covering masks in 90-degree weather.

Philadelphia officials outlawed the masks to try to combat problems in their city. Harrisburg police say they have talked with city council members to see if such an ordinance would be an option to help tamp down gang activity in the capitol city.

Another factor that continues to play into gang violence, Zwally said, is people’s increasing dependence on social media, which makes it much easier to start arguments and show disrespect that can end in gunfire.

‘Come get y’all man’

The level of disrespect and recklessness that gang members show has reached a new peak in Harrisburg, Zwally said.

They have fired into crowds, and over their shoulders while running, increasing the likelihood of innocent bystanders getting hit. City gang members have recorded themselves urinating on the graves of their “opps,” and posted the videos online.

Zwally called it “clicks for clout,” with gang members motivated to call the most attention to themselves and their group.

In late July, a group stole the headstone of Jawan Washington, who was killed in 2018 while celebrating his 20th birthday. He had friends in the gang operating near 18th and Regina, and the theft occurred several weeks after the deaths of Hotty and Zar, the two Southside members. The yet-unidentified thieves posted a photo of Washington’s stolen brass plate on social media with the message: “Come get ya’ll man.”

Police told Washington’s mother that a photo of the stolen gravestone looked like it was taken in Hall Manor, near where the Southside gangs operate.

The feud still appears to be hot. On Thursday, a young man whose Facebook name gives homage to Washington, posted this cryptic message on Facebook:”(They) say they gonna kill me, ok bet!! but I ain’t even bust a sweat dem boys ain’t threats.”

In addition to the killings of Hotty and Zar, police are trying to determine if a gang dispute was behind a shooting Aug. 18 near 19th and Derry streets that killed Na’Ryah Wright, 13, of Steelton, who was believed to be an innocent bystander.

Na’Ryah was known throughout Steelton. She was a lifelong resident, athlete and cheerleader, and had friends in the area of 18th and Regina.

At a balloon release to honor her memory, a masked teen affiliated with the gang at 18th and Regina showed up with a gun and got into an argument with a girl. They had to be separated.

A week later, a fight broke out in the parking lot at Na’Ryah’s funeral. Police arrested a juvenile, whom gang investigators said “was on their radar,” after they say he tossed a gun into bushes after the altercation.

‘This gun ain’t for you’

The gang warfare can make life unbearable for residents in or near the gang strongholds. Neighbors near 18th and Regina complained about bullet holes in their windows.

One woman told PennLive “everyone knows who’s in that TTK gang. … They terrorize everyone and nothing gets done.”

TTK gang members picked on her teen son years ago, she said.

“And they harass anyone walking down Park Street,” she said.

Priscilla Coleman, 62, lives less than a mile away in a row home between Allison Hill and Southside. She has had repeated problems that started last year when 10 gunshots were fired into her home.

Coleman said she was sitting on her couch last month when, on two consecutive nights, someone threw rocks through her front windows. One of these rocks hit her in the back, bruising her.

Two huge, jagged holes remain in her front windows, covered by a large piece of plywood.

She suspects kids – kids in gangs, in particular – were responsible. Police gave her an incident number for her insurance and warned that the kids could come back and throw rocks through the front door’s window panes. She said she is buying plastic replacement windows out of fear glass windows would be destroyed again.

She’s been trying to stay up during the night to see if the kids come back. When doing so, she said she frequently sees kids riding their bikes and carrying guns through her neighborhood between about 2 and 4 a.m.

Coleman wanted to know why police can’t more broadly enforce the city’s midnight curfew for juveniles.

“Bring the curfew back and stick to it,” she said.

Police Deputy Chief Kenny Young said officers have been saturating high-crime areas and enforcing the curfew. But there are times when officers can’t, such as when there are a lot of other calls for help across the city.

Last year Coleman was walking in an alley behind the 500 block of South 17th Street with her grandson when she saw a couple kids with guns.

“Don’t shoot me,” she told them.

“This gun ain’t for you, mama,” she said they replied.

A way out

Young people in Harrisburg, gang members and law enforcement officials agree that there isn’t enough positive programming and sports leagues available to kids in the city.

“They have nothing to turn to but the block,” said one man who lives in the area of 17th and Derry streets.

Corey Dickerson, the county’s main detective who’s on the gang task force, said he would like to see community centers in a dozen city neighborhoods, places that would offer everything from chess to basketball and be accessible for everyone.

Resurrecting the police athletic league would help too, he said.

Right now, the city has just two main community centers.

“If a 12-year-old spends all his time with a 20-year-old on the street, what do you expect to get out of that?” Dickerson said. “They’re looking at what they see as successful, and that’s people who are rapping and drug dealing. They think, ‘That’s my way out.’”

Excessive idle time also means more time spent trolling on social media.

Dickerson and Zwally agreed that law enforcement and the community need to be proactive, to catch kids early before they get caught in the gang culture.

Police have been hamstrung in some of their efforts by a lack of juvenile center beds available for Dauphin County’s young people. A cap on the number of beds means juveniles arrested with guns sometimes get released back into their neighborhoods instead of getting a chance for rehabilitation at a juvenile center.

This limitation is well known among the city’s youth and has started to enable more bad behavior, Dickerson said, with juveniles telling their friends “I’ll be right back out.”

The county’s gang force is a part-time effort composed of officers from different departments. They share intelligence and occasionally assemble for “details” if necessary. Getting funding for a full-time task force would help combat the growing problems, Zwally said.

“It needs to be full-time,” he said. “We need a violent crime task force with a gang element. We need to be paying attention 24/7 so we can stop things before they happen.”

In recent years, the city started a group violence intervention (GVI) initiative to focus on the small percentage of residents causing the majority of the violence. The effort took more time to get off the ground than originally intended, but now sends a team into neighborhoods after a violent crime to offer services. A team visited 18th and Regina after Byers Jr. was killed there, but the gang member who talked to PennLive said they had a detective with them, so most of the young people walked away.

City Spokesman Matt Maisel said the GVI program will take years to show results, just like it did in the city of York, but they believe it will eventually deliver on its promise to reduce violence in Harrisburg. In the meantime, the city has recorded 16 homicides so far this year compared to 11 at the same time last year.

Parents also have a responsibility to watch what their kids are doing, the police commissioner said.

“If we see your kids hanging on the corner when driving down the street, why can’t the parents?” Carter said.

Dickerson said parents should take note of what their children are buying and how they are paying for it.

“We can’t be afraid to ask the hard questions,” he said. “You don’t want to say you wish you did, after the fact.”

Harrisburg City Councilman Lamont Jones agreed that well-meaning parents need to be nosier.

A lot of people point at parents, Jones said, but “I can remember when I was a young man, I was taught all the right stuff at home. All the stuff I got into was outside of the home, it had nothing to do with my parents. We have to be more mindful of what our kids are doing”

More kids will make better choices if there are more options for them, Jones said.

“These children are amazing. It’s just unchanneled energy. The energy’s not bad, it’s just not directed,” he said. “Right now we’re working in so many silos, we need to bring people together under one roof.”

And leaders should act with urgency, he said. The mental toll of children losing so many friends and witnessing so much trauma only magnifies problems.

“You hear guys say ‘I’m not going to make it to 20, and I’m OK with it,’” Jones said. “That’s a messed up way of thinking.”

Nobody is listening to the kids, said Cal Hollman, who served time in prison and was shot when he was younger. Now he mentors teens in the city.

“There’s some that really don’t want to be out there,” he said. “We need to find immediate job opportunities for kids if they come off the streets and turn in their guns.” Hollman said he hears that straight from the kids.

“There’s some days I just feel like killing a [expletive],” one teen told Cal, after he experienced some disrespectful behavior.

“These kids come from broken families,” Hollman said, without much guidance and support. “Streets is their home. When they come out of the streets and into their home, it’s like they’re still in the streets.”

The signs of growing gang and gun violence were obvious years ago, Carter and Hollman said. There need to be options, job-training and alternatives presented to the kids to stop the cycle.

“We dropped the ball on helping these guys a long time ago,” Hollman said. “We’ve been seeing this problem coming. … I’m just hoping these guys hold on.”