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By ALAIN GAILLARD
A gang member testified Thursday for the prosecution in Brooklyn Supreme Court that he tried to de-escalate the violence between his clique and a rival gang, which led to the fatal accidental shooting of Carey Gabay, an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, during J’Ouvert, a predawn celebration that occurred before West Indian American Day.
Todd Wilkins, aka “The Ghost,” on cross-examination, said that he was aware of the conflict between the two gangs but not the severity of the animosity. He explained that he and a friend were jumped during an altercation by about five or 10 members of the Folk Nation, the gang to which the four alleged members now on trial for the fatal shooting belonged.
“I tried to diffuse the situation,” Wilkins explained, while the four defendants in the courtroom, each flanked by lawyers, looked at him with contempt. “One of them pulled up his shirt to show me his gun. My friend ran, and members of the Folk Nation ran after him; I was obligated to help. That’s when they jumped us,” he added.
The gunfight nearly three years ago was a sad reminder of the continued presence of vicious gangs in New York City. Wilkins, 23, explained that he had been a gang member since he was 12 years old. And the incident drew negative publicity to the festivities on West Indian American Day, prompting some calls to cancel the parade.
One of the weapons used during the barrage of 30 bullets that the police reported were sprayed that night was found on the windshield of a car one month later at Bergen Street, Brooklyn.
Gabay, the son of Jamaican immigrants, was a lover of the parade and relished celebrating his Jamaican heritage by going every year to J’Ouvert. He also was considered a rising star in Democratic state political circles.
It was on September 7, 2015, the shootout broke out in what appeared to be a turf war between the opposing Folk Nation and Eight-Tray Crips gangs. Gabay, 43, a Harvard-educated lawyer, tried to hide behind a car when he was struck in the head by a stray bullet. He died a week later at Kings County Hospital Center.
If convicted, all four alleged members of the Folk Nation face 25 years behind bars.
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