FOX45 News: Another guilty plea given in federal racketeering case linking BGF to former Safe Streets site
Another man connected to a notorious Baltimore gang pleaded guilty in federal court to racketeering conspiracy Wednesday, marking the latest following the indictment of six people in 2022.
David Warren pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy connected to the Black Guerilla Family gang, or BGF. Court documents indicate Warren was involved in criminal activity dating back to 2014, including contract “hits” on rivals and other violent crimes.
Warren also admitted to attending BGF meetings at a Safe Streets location, dubbing the site — designed to provide a location for violence interrupters to work — a BGF ‘clubhouse,’ and a place to stash guns and drugs, according to court documents.
“Two BGF members who attended the meetings were employed by Safe Streets as violence interrupters,” the court documents outline. “The Defendant admits that during the late spring and summer of 2015, he and other BGF members utilized the Safe Streets office in the 2300 block of East Monument Street as a de facto BGF clubhouse, where they stored drugs and firearms and plotted acts of violence on behalf of the gang.”
Court documents included in Warren’s plea agreement detail several crimes in which Warren admits having participated: In May 2015, at the direction of a co-conspirator, Warren and others “fired upon a group of rivals who were attending a candlelight vigil for a deceased rival near the intersection of North Rose and East Monument Streets,” according to court documents.
“The Defendant admits that the attack was planned by Co-Conspirator 1 and others at the Safe Streets Office in the 2300 block of Monument Street,” according to court documents.
That Safe Streets site was the McElderry Park location, which at the time was managed by Living Classrooms. In the fall of 2022, Mayor Brandon Scott announced the city would be restructuring management of the 10 Safe Streets sites. Instead of a patchwork of nonprofits managing the day-to-day operations, Baltimore City contracted with LifeBridge Health Center for Hope and Catholic Charities to manage the 10 sites; both LifeBridge and Catholic Charities previously managed some Safe Streets sites.
Warren’s plea agreement details several other hits he admits to participating in, some he said he even received payments for completing.
In 2015, Baltimore City closed the McElderry Park Safe Streets site; it later re-opened, and now, the McElderry Park Site is located a few blocks away.
In January, FOX45 News reported on Tyrell Jeffries, another BGF member, who pleaded guilty to federal racketeering conspiracy as well.
In July 2015, three of Jeffries’ co-conspirators — who were also later charged — stole approximately 300 grams of heroin from a West Baltimore drug dealer, according to the court records. On July 6, 2015, Jeffries and other BGF members “ambushed” the drug dealer while he was sitting in his vehicle and shot into the car. The drug dealer was injured but survived.
FOX45 News questioned Mayor Brandon Scott in January about the possibility of Safe Streets sites being used for other gang-related activity.
“What I can say is that anytime we find anybody to be involved in criminal activity, Mikenzie, we remove those people and turn them over to the justice system,” he said at the time. “I’ve said to you a thousand times, I don’t care if those things are being had at the DPW office, if they are being plotted out in the basement of FOX45 TV, wherever they are being plotted out, our folks will find the people and remove them as we are working with our law enforcement partners, as was the case in this situation.”
FOX45 news has been investigating Safe Streets for several years, pressing Scott and other leaders for information about how the program spends taxpayer dollars, details on program operations, and the names of the Safe Streets workers.
To be hired, the workers — often referred to as violence interrupters — are supposed to be known in the community in which they serve and are credible messengers. Yet Scott, and the community-based organizations, have refused to provide the names of the workers, shielding the information, citing safety concerns.
During an event celebrating the opening of the new Cherry Hill Safe Streets location in June 2024, FOX45 News again asked Scott to release the names of the workers, noting that several were on hand for the event, in public and appearing in photos and videos.
“We will treat them the same way we would treat everyone when it comes to personnel issues and we will treat them the same way we would treat anyone who does life changing work and life dangerous work,” Scott said.
In a separate federal investigation, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Belair-Edison Safe Streets site in October 2023.