Member Of 'Violent Street Gang' Sentenced: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT — A New Haven man has been sentenced to 8 years and one month in prison for his role in a violent street gang, according to a statement from federal prosecutors. Dejuan Ward, 23, will also serve three years of supervised release.

Ward's arrest was tied to a 2016 investigation by the New Haven Police Department’s Shooting Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into numerous unsolved shootings in New Haven and Hamden.

The investigation revealed that guns used in the shootings belong to members and associates of the Goodrich Street Boys (GSB), a New Haven street gang, and that GSB members also were involved in a number of other shootings in 2016, many of them retaliatory against rival gang members.

GSB members distributed heroin, cocaine and marijuana, and used social media to post pictures and videos of themselves with firearms, and used social media to threaten rivals, including individuals who might cooperate with law enforcement.

Ward and five other members of the gang were indicted in 2017 on 13 counts of racketeering, attempted murder, and narcotics and gun trafficking charges. According to the indictment, GSB members and associates were involved in six gang-related shootings that caused injuries to five individuals in 2015 and 2016.

Ward was involved in at least one attempt to murder a rival gang member, and he regularly sent or posted pictures and videos of himself with firearms in an effort to intimidate rivals and show off for the group.

On Aug. 1, 2016, Ward posted a video of himself brandishing a revolver with an obliterated serial number. The firearm was subsequently found in a van after a triple homicide in Wallingford on Dec. 30, 2016, according to the statement.

Ward has been detained since January 2017. He previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.